


What Makes a Family

by HiddenTreasures (lastbluetardis)



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Family, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 20:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 36,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29338662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastbluetardis/pseuds/HiddenTreasures
Summary: James McCrimmon has, for the past seven years, been a devoted, doting father to his daughter; though content with his life as it is, he can’t deny that single fatherhood can get quite lonely. Rose Tyler is simply trying to make the best of a bad situation; after the untimely death of her boyfriend, she moves to the countryside of England to give her children (and herself) a fresh start. She wasn’t looking for love when love suddenly found her in the form of an endearing school teacher and fellow single parent.The attraction between them is undeniable as they allow themselves this selfish joy, embarking in a deep and passionate romance. It seems as though they’ve finally found their happy ending, until James’s past comes back to haunt them. Until everything they’ve held so dear is threatened to be torn away. They must find a way to weather the storm that will either break them or draw them ever-closer, all while answering the question of what it means to be a family.
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 165
Kudos: 148





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! It's me, here with a shiny, brand-new AU. I have been so excited about writing this story ever since I got the plot bunny back in October. I wasn't originally intending to post it so soon, but I realized my brain is slightly more motivated when I know there are people waiting for an update.
> 
> Major thanks to Lindsay ([Aintfraidanoghosts](https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/Aintfraidanoghosts/pseuds/Aintfraidanoghosts)) for her endless support and enthusiasm while I plotted and wrote this story.
> 
> Quick note about this chapter, there's a childbirth scene in it, and while it's not overly-explicit, I do describe it. Skim over it if that's not your thing. Also, future chapters will not be as long as this first one. The muse got away from me here.
> 
> Without further ado, here it is!

Rose Tyler loved her children. Of course she loved her children. She loved her children more than words could ever express. The feeling often consumed her, _overwhelmed_ her, until she thought she might suffocate with how very much she loved her children. There was nothing in the world she was prouder of than her children.

But sometimes she wished they would disappear into a different dimension for a while to give her some damn peace and quiet.

All she wanted was to lie down in a dark, quiet room and cease to exist for the foreseeable future. Was that too much to ask? Evidently it was, because evidently it was “bad parenting” to let your kids eat nothing but ice cream, chocolate biscuits, and ice lollies for their meals, and that was all she happened to have in the house at the moment. Along with some crisps and a jar of peanut butter.

She would have done a lot of morally-questionable things to have a nice, long, hot soak in the tub and let her aching muscles relax. Though at nearly nine months pregnant, there was only so relaxed she could be.

No matter. Her children still needed to be fed on a regular basis, which led Rose to dragging her two young sons along with her to the grocery store after picking them up from school and nursery. Just a quick little jaunt to the store to pick up the essentials to get them though the next few days, as she would do a more thorough shopping trip the following week once her maternity leave began and she would have a majority of her days to herself. (She tried to convince herself that she would be productive and wouldn’t merely lie around the house, basking in the last couple of baby-free weeks.)

The shopping trip would take a half hour at most. Quick, in and out, easy peasy.

But, of course, everything went utterly wrong.

It started out with her three-year-old, Matthew, having an accident in his big boy pants because he’d failed to tell her he needed to wee until he was exactly seven seconds away from wetting himself. But that was all right. Rose carried extra clothes in her bag for this very reason. Because he had only grasped the concept of using a toilet within the last couple months, a few accidents were to be expected. She got him cleaned up and dressed, and she repeatedly reassured him that “the wee wee will wash out of your dinosaur pants.”

Then, _she_ needed a wee. It hit her with the force of a tsunami that she was lucky she avoided an embarrassing accident in the cereal aisle, considering the baby kept prancing across her bladder as she made a mad dash to the loos.

With herself dealt with, she forced her seven-year-old, David, to try to use the toilet because “We are not coming back here for the rest of the trip”. He obliged her and relieved the small contents of his bladder.

However, they had to revisit the toilet when her youngest began frantically screaming, “My poo is coming out!”

“You really, really need to tell Mummy much sooner when you need the toilet,” she said as gently as she could as she ran with him to the loo. “It takes some time to find a toilet, Mattie.”

By the mercy of whatever deity was looking down upon them, they avoided a major craptastrophe just in the nick of time; it would have been quite the mess, as Matthew seemed to be suffering from a bout of minor diarrhea. Most of Rose’s patience and energy were now spent, and she was about to pack up the boys and go home to let them eat junk food and sweets for dinner because she couldn’t be arsed to pick up real food anymore.

However, the ever-present Mum Guilt began chattering in her ear about how she was an awful mother and that she had been stupid to think she could do this all by herself. Determined to tell that voice to go to hell, she led her boys back into the grocery store proper, because surely there was no other bodily fluid that could come out of either child.

Unless they vomited.

Which Matthew did. All over Rose and the bag of frozen chicken nuggets she’d been inspecting.

“I don’ feel good,” he moaned, fat tears beginning to fall down his cheeks.

Rose was near tears herself. She wanted to shout in frustration at the universe for getting in her way of being a responsible mother. Mostly, she wanted to up and vanish because other patrons were beginning to stare at her, some with sympathy, but most with disgust.

_I didn’t bloody tell him to puke all over the place._

“Oh, baby,” she cooed instead, even as she felt a lump rise to her throat. She crouched in front of him, which was quite the feat considering her huge, bulging belly. “Oh, Mattie, come here.”

Her toddler sniffled and collapsed into her arms, moaning rather pathetically. She rubbed his back and kissed his temple, then his forehead; his temperature was fine, but he obviously felt miserable.

“Er… miss… ma’am?”

Rose glanced up and saw an acne-pocked teen standing beside her, wringing his hands in front of himself.

“Is… is everything all right?”

 _Does it look bloody all right?_ “I’m so sorry. My son was sick. I’m sorry. I’ll pay for those. And all the rest of my groceries, obviously. Sorry for the mess. Is there any way you can get us checked out as fast as possible before he throws up again? I really need to get him home.”

It took a few tries, but Rose managed to stand with Matthew on her hip, when she felt an odd _pluck_ from low in her belly. The sensation was followed by a trickle of wetness between her legs.

“Did you wee yourself, Mummy?”

Rose groaned to herself. _Of fucking course_. And of course she was wearing light gray tracksuit bottoms, so everybody could see the dampness at her crotch and slowly rolling down her legs. If she hadn’t experienced this twice before, she would have thought David was correct in saying she’d pissed herself.

“Oh… oh, God… oh, miss, do you need me to call an ambulance?”

“No,” she said through clenched teeth as her cheeks blazed with heat. _It’s not like the films… I’m not gonna start screaming and give birth in the frozen dinners aisle._

“Are… are you sure?” The teen was chalky pale, and part of Rose felt sorry for the kid—he definitely didn’t make enough to have to deal with the mess of a sick toddler and a woman who’d gone into labor. But a larger part of her wanted to snap at him to stop gawking and help her get to a goddamn register so she could pay for her goddamn groceries.

She took in a deep breath and held it for five seconds. “I’m very sure—” Rose squinted at the lad’s nametag— “Michael. Very sure. I’ll just go pay for my groceries, shall I?”

By now, a small crowd had gathered around them. Several women approached and offered to help; while she appreciated the gesture, Rose wanted to get home with her boys and tend to Matthew, then arrange for child care so she could go to the hospital.

The shop attendant, bless his little heart, opened up a new check-out station for Rose so she could pay for the few items that had made their way into her trolley. It was nowhere close to what she had wanted to pick up, but at least she’d managed to get chicken nuggets, which could serve as the boys’ dinner. And who knew if Matthew would even be in the mood to eat. She was fairly certain she had a can of soup she could make for him later, if he didn’t want the nuggets.

Luckily, they made it out of the grocery store without further incident. Rose put the groceries in the boot of her car and got her sons buckled in before making the twenty-minute drive home.

They were almost there when Matthew cried, “I gotta poo! Mummy, I need a toilet! My belly hurts!”

“Again?” Rose groaned. “Hold on, baby. We’re almost home. Clench those muscles nice and tight.”

Matthew sniffled and grunted for almost a full minute, then squealed, “I can’t make it!”

 _Fuck_. Rose swallowed her curses when she smelled the accident Matthew had in his pants.

“Mummy I don’ wanna go in my big boy pants!”

“I know,” she said, glancing at him in the rearview mirror. His face was pale and tears and snot streaked across his cheeks. The expression broke her heart and evaporated her irritation. She flicked her gaze to her eldest. “David, how are you doing?”

Her eldest had his shirt tugged over his nose, his brows knitted in a frown. “It _stinks_ back here.”

“We’re almost home,” she said. “He couldn’t help it. He’s not feeling well.”

At that moment, a cramp twisted through her gut, stealing the air from her lungs.

 _You’re three weeks early, baby girl_ , Rose grumbled to her belly, panting through the pain.

Matthew was Rose’s first priority when they made it home. She helped him out of his car seat, inspecting the damage of what would need to be cleaned. Thankfully most of the mess stayed contained in his jeans, but some of it seeped through the seat of his trousers. _Poor bud._

“David, love, can you be a big helper and grab the bags for Mummy?”

He grumbled, but dutifully grabbed the groceries from the back of the car and followed his mother and brother into their small stone house.

Rose was as in love with their new home as she was two months ago when she pulled the trigger and made a hefty down payment on it with the small chunk of money she received after the untimely death of her boyfriend eight months prior. Up until then, their family of four had lived in a rented two-bedroom terraced house; even before Rose was aware that she was expecting again, she was browsing for a larger house, keeping an eye on something she would be able to afford on her own.

She had been going back and forth on the pros of leaving the boyfriend she was sure was cheating on her versus the cons of losing his income and his availability to babysit when she had to work early or late. The decision was made for her, however, when she was visited one evening by police bearing the news that Jimmy Stone had been involved in a drunk driving incident that left him and his passenger hospitalized. Jimmy hadn’t lasted the night, but his mate had managed to pull through with nothing more than several broken bones and the trauma of losing his best friend.

Wanting to keep some semblance of normalcy for her children, Rose was determined to stay in their home, which seemed much bigger once Jimmy’s presence was gone. She had to scramble to adjust her plans, however, when she eventually realized her missing periods were _not_ due to stress, but were in fact one final gift from her late boyfriend. She spent months coordinating with bankers and realtors to find a new home for herself and her children, hoping a fresh start would do her kids a world of good.

Currently, Rose walked her three-year-old to the loo to get him cleaned up. With how soiled he was, she decided a bath was in order. But first…

“Mummy, I’m still wearing _clothes_ ,” Matthew protested when she turned on the shower and placed him beneath the spray.

“I know, baby. But you’re rather messy, and Mummy wants to give you and your clothes a pre-wash first.”

Layer by layer, she undressed her son and tried to get the worst of the mess out of his trousers and pants before she plopped them into a sodden heap on the floor. With how messy her own clothes were, between her water breaking and Matthew throwing up on her, she shucked out of her trousers and shirt as well.

“Is Mummy gon’ shower with me?” Matthew asked, eyes brightening.

“No, baby. My clothes were dirty though, so I took them off. Bath time for Mr. Matthew.”

Matthew adored baths, mercifully; therefore, he had no qualms about being bathed even though it wasn’t bedtime. He happily sat there playing with his floating bath toys: a set of boats, submarines, aquatic creatures. Rose sat back and simply watched her son as he muttered under his breath about “krakens” and “sinking” and “rescue”, all while making exploding noises with his mouth. His imagination was beyond anything she’d ever seen in a child before, and that wasn’t her maternal bias coming through, thank you very much. While David preferred to play more physical games, Matthew adored playing pretend and being read to, which was seemingly at odds with Matthew’s boundless energy and David’s mindful presence.

“Time to get squeaky clean, baby boy,” Rose said after the octopus crashed on top of the submarine and sank it through the bubbles.

So focused was she on caring for her son that Rose forgot she had started labor until a new contraction spasmed through her. She glanced at the clock; fifteen minutes since the previous one. Okay, so a _bit_ sooner than she anticipated, but she still had plenty of time before she actually needed to get moving to the hospital. Plenty of time to cuddle her child to make him feel better.

After she finished bathing Matthew, Rose wrapped him in a towel and carried him to the bedroom he shared with David. She would have loved to have been able to give the boys their own rooms, but unfortunately her budget hadn’t allowed for a four-bedroom house, not without stretching her finances thinner than was comfortable. The boys didn’t seem to mind, though, and the bedroom was large enough that, even when David and Matthew became teenagers, there would be plenty of room for the two of them. Perhaps by that time, Rose would be able to afford a larger home for her family.

Rose opened up Matthew’s dresser and reached beneath his big boy pants for a pull-up instead. With how questionable his bowels were—and with how much he was struggling to make it to the toilet in time—she didn’t want to risk yet another messy accident; she did not have the energy to clean him up again. Thankfully, he didn’t complain when she helped him into the pull-up.

He _did_ voice his displeasure, however, when she grabbed soft cotton trousers and a long-sleeved shirt for him.

“I wan’ my dino jammies,” Matthew whined.

“Those aren’t a good idea, sweetheart,” Rose said gently. They were a (rather adorable) onesie ensemble complete with scales, a tail, and a hood, but Rose didn’t trust him to be able to get out of them quickly enough if he needed to poo again.

“I wan’ my dino jammies!”

Praying for patience, Rose pasted a smile on her face and said pleasantly, “Those are for bedtime. It’s not bedtime, is it? Unless you’d like to go to sleep instead of snuggle with Mummy as we watch Paw Patrol?”

Matthew’s eyes widened and he gasped. “Nonono! I wanna wa’ch Marshall!”

“Then let’s get dressed and we can put him on and have a nice cuddle with David.”

She helped Matthew slip into the trousers and his _Jurassic Park_ shirt, then said, “Why don’t you wait for me on the couch? Mummy needs to change.”

“Nonono!” he wailed, bouncing on his feet and raising his arms. His eyes welled with tears. “I wanna go with Mummy.”

Sighing, Rose obliged and picked him up. He whimpered and buried his face into her shoulder, clinging to her. She kissed his soft hair and stood in the middle of his room, rocking him slowly for nearly a full minute.

“I love you, Mattie,” she murmured, rubbing his back.

He peeked up at her, his red-rimmed eyes at war with his bright smile. “I love you, Mummy.”

She walked with him down the hall to her bedroom. It also doubled as the nursery for the time being, since Rose would be keeping her baby in her bedroom with her for the first few months to make nighttime feeds easier. However, that meant it was cluttered with baby furniture: a crib, changing table, and rocking chair took up any floor space not occupied by Rose’s queen-sized bed and dresser.

“Sit here, Mattie,” Rose said, plopping him on the center of her bed.

As she made to strip off her damp knickers, her uterus squeezed and tightened, sending tendrils of fire through her hips and lower spine. She gasped and hunched over, trying to find the least uncomfortable position.

“Is Mummy sick?” Small hands touched her face, petting her hair clumsily. “S’okay, Mummy. S’okay.”

“Thanks, baby boy.” Half a minute later, Rose was able to straighten again, but a cramping band of pressure remained wrapped around her hips. “Would you like to hear a secret, Mattie?” The boy’s eyes lit up as he nodded and bounced on the mattress. “Your baby sister is coming; she’ll probably be born tonight or tomorrow. Isn’t that exciting? You’re gonna be a big brother soon, just like David.”

He let out a squeak of sheer delight. “My sissy’s comin’? My sissy’s comin’!” He began leaping across the mattress, chanting, “My sissy’s comin’! My sissy’s comin’!”

Rose grinned at her three-year-old, not having the heart to remind him that he wasn’t supposed to jump on the bed. She had been nervous about how her children would react upon learning they were getting a new sibling. She worried that it would traumatize them, since so much of their life had been upended after the death of their father. Her biggest fear had been that they would resent the baby, thinking it had come to replace their father. To her unending relief, though, both boys were beyond excited, and had been ever since she broke the news to them.

As Matthew continued his cries of “ _My sissy’s comin’_!”, Rose slipped into her comfiest, baggiest trousers and jumper, then gathered up her laundry basket on one hip.

“Does my big boy want to help Mummy with something?”

“Yeah! I’m a big helper!” He hopped to the floor. “I’m helpin’!”

“Can you pick up the dirty clothes from your bathroom?” She led Matthew to the boys’ bathroom and pointed to the pile of sodden clothes she’d left there. “And carry them to the washing machine?”

Matthew nodded and dutifully collected the clothes. He wrinkled his nose. “Ew, they’re _wet_!”

“Yep, so we’re gonna wash ‘em. Follow me, Mattie.”

Rose led the way to the kitchen, to the stacked washer and dryer in the corner. Her eye was drawn, however, to the bags of groceries that sat, unopened, on the countertops.

“David,” Rose gritted out, setting the laundry basket in front of the washing machine, “please come into the kitchen.” A few seconds later, her eldest shuffled into the room, looking somewhat sheepish. “When we come home with groceries, what is the first thing we do?” 

The seven-year-old looked down at his feet, where he was curling and uncurling his toes as he recited softly, “Put away the frozen stuff then put away the fridge stuff then put away the cabinet stuff.”

“So why are _all_ of the groceries sitting on the counter?” Rose asked.

David shrugged and muttered, “Sorry.”

Rose breathed in deeply, held it for a few seconds, then said, “Let’s put everything away now.”

David peeked up at her and offered a small smile, one that she returned.

“We never want to waste food, right?” Rose asked, ruffling his hair.

“Right,” he said, grinning.

“I’m helpin’ too!” Matthew sprinted up to them, dragging a kitchen chair behind him. He climbed onto it and began reaching into the bags to take out each item to set them on the counter for his mother and brother to put away.

With the groceries dealt with, Rose turned her attention to the laundry. She supervised as the boys chucked all of the clothes into the washing machine, and was horrified when Matthew grabbed another kitchen chair to open up the cabinet that housed the laundry detergent pods.

“Matthew,” she snapped, rushing up to take the bag of pods away from him. She cursed herself silently when he flinched away from her. More gently, she continued, “Matthew, you do not touch these. You do not play with these. You do not put these in your mouth. They’re not gummies, they’re yucky chemicals that will make you very, _very_ sick.”

“They’re for laundry,” he sniffled. “David said so.”

Rose tried not to glare at her eldest. “You shouldn’t have shown him where these are. These are dangerous, David. They look like big gummies to him.”

“Sorry,” David mumbled, his shoulders curling inward.

_Yelled at him twice in five minutes. Well done, Rose. Smashing parenting._

Rose crouched in front of him and reached to cradle his cheeks, urging him to look at her.

“I’m sorry for raising my voice,” she said. David ducked his eyes and shrugged. “Sweetheart, look at me. I’m sorry. I’ll bet you were doing something nice, eh, by showing your little brother how to do the laundry?”

David nodded.

“That’s a very nice thing to do. It helps me out a great deal when you boys can help with the housework. But in the future, how about you try to teach him chores that don’t involve chemicals? Eh? He can put clothes in the washer or dryer, or dishes in the dishwasher, but he can’t touch the detergent. He can help with the dusting or vacuuming. But nothing with chemicals until he’s a bit older, yeah?”

“Okay,” David said, smiling. “I can touch the chemicals, right?”

“Right. Well, at least the laundry and dish detergents. Stay away from the bathroom cleaners for now, though.”

Rose opened her arms to give him a hug, one he eagerly stepped into. She squeezed him tightly, then kissed his cheek. It took a few tries to push herself to her feet, but she managed, and she unzipped the bag of laundry pods to chuck one into the machine.

“I wanna press the buttons!” Matthew whined when David moved to do it.

“I’m doing it,” the seven-year-old said firmly.

Matthew let out an unholy screech and pushed his brother.

Before Rose could reprimand her toddler, another contraction ripped through her belly and back and she wasn’t able to hold in her gasp of pain. She leaned against the counter as she struggled to breathe.

“Mummy?” David was instantly at her side, pulling at her arm. It took everything she had not to pull away from him, not to shout at him to not touch her. “Mummy, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

“Baby sissy is comin’!” Matthew exclaimed. “My sissy is comin’!”

David beamed and pressed his hands to Rose’s swollen belly. “Is she actually coming?”

“Mhm,” she answered, grinding her teeth through the pain twisting her gut.

It took a good thirty seconds before she could breathe normally and straighten, though the twinge at the base of her spine hadn’t fully gone away.

“Do you remember what I told you about giving birth? How it might be a little painful for Mummy?” Rose asked, brushing her fingers through David’s then Matthew’s hair, the former chestnut brown, the latter cornsilk blond; both were sleek and smooth. She could spend hours playing with her boys’ hair, and had done exactly that in the past. She hoped her daughter would prefer to keep her hair long so that Rose could plait it and play with it as often as she liked.

“But it’s perfectly normal,” David parroted. “I thought she wasn’t supposed to be here ‘til October fifteenth.”

“Guess she’s a bit impatient. Do you remember what I told you? Grandma is gonna come stay with you and Mattie while I go to the hospital to give birth to your sister.” 

_Hopefully Grandma is available…_ Rose supposed she ought to let her mother know she would be needed tonight to watch the boys. Her mother was a beautician—it shouldn't be difficult for her mum to get a few of her coworkers to cover her shift for the next few days.

“And we can come visit you in the hospital after the baby comes?” David asked.

“Absolutely,” Rose promised, kissing the top of his head. “I can’t wait for you to meet your sister. You’re a fantastic big brother.” She gazed at her soon-to-be middle child. “And you are gonna turn into a fantastic big brother, too.”

“I’m a big boy,” Matthew stated proudly. “An’ a big brother.”

“Quite right,” Rose said, kissing him. “That’s the laundry done. Let’s cuddle together on the couch for a bit before Grandma gets here.”

“We’re gonna watch Paw Patrol!”

“Ugh, please no,” David moaned. 

“David,” Rose warned when Matthew screamed, “I wanna wa’ch Marshall!”

“We’re going to watch Marshall,” Rose soothed, shooting her eldest a look of warning. “Because you're not feeling well, little boys who don’t feel well get to pick the television show that makes them feel better. Isn’t that right, David?”

“Yeah, yeah,” he muttered.

“Go get comfy on the couch,” she said, shooing her kids towards the living room. “I’m gonna call Grandma, then I’ll be right there.”

When the boys left the room, Rose grabbed her phone and called the salon where her mother worked.

“Hi, I’d like to speak with Jackie,” Rose said when the receptionist answered. “It’s her daughter, Rose.”

“Hi, Rose! How are you, darlin’?”

“I’m fine,” she said with false cheer. “I really need to speak with my mum, though.”

“Sure thing, hon.”

Rose was placed on hold just in time for Matthew to shout, “I gotta pooooooo!”

The three-year-old raced down the hall, and Rose jogged after him, praying he made it onto the toilet in time. He did, and was grunting as he suffered through another round of violent diarrhea.

“My bum hurts,” Matthew moaned as he unraveled toilet paper until it was as long as he was tall.

“I know, baby.” She stopped him from ripping off ten squares of toilet paper, and instead let him tear off three. “Did you eat something yucky at school?” Rose made a mental note to call the school to see if any other children were having gastrointestinal troubles, or to see if Matthew had somehow eaten dairy despite his lactose intolerance.

“No,” he said, though Rose wasn’t exactly inclined to take her three-year-old at his word.

“I’m sorry you’re feeling unwell.” She stroked his fine blond hair away from his eyes. “Mummy wishes she could make it all better.”

“My bum hurts,” he sniffled again as he went to wipe.

“ _What’s wrong with his bum?_ ”

Startled, Rose nearly dropped her phone, having forgotten she was on hold with her mother.

“Hi Gramma!” Matthew shouted, recognizing the voice. “I’m goin’ poo! My poo is makin’ my bum hurt.”

“He’s had some diarrhea,” Rose explained. “Listen, Mum, I need you to come down and stay with the boys. I’ve gone into labor.”

“What do you mean, you’ve gone into labor?!” her mother squawked. 

“Labor. You know, the process of giving birth to the child growin’ in my belly.”

Matthew giggled, and Rose winked at him.

“Don’t be a smartarse… er, a smart aleck. When did that start? How soon do you need me? I’ve got a couple more clients this afternoon.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “Would you like me to ask her how long she’s plannin’ on staying in there? I don’t know, Mum. Contractions are ten minutes apart, but they’re getting closer each time, so probably soon.”

“Well, I reckon you’ve got a few hours to go,” Jackie concluded. “Ten-minute breaks between contractions can last for half a day sometimes. Mattie took his sweet time coming out, remember?”

_Yes, Mum, I was, in fact, present for the birth of my child._

“Tell you what. I’ll finish up my current client and then head over. My workload this evening was fairly light anyway. You know, this wouldn’t be an issue if you’d stayed local. There were plenty of flats you could’ve got here in London. Why the hell did you feel the need to move to _bloody Kent_?”

“We’ve gone over this, Mum,” Rose sighed. “Look, just get here as soon as you can, yeah?”

“I’ve got to go, sweetheart,” Jackie said. “I’ll be there in an hour and a half. Maybe two. Call me if there’s any change.”

Rose nodded and bade her mum farewell, and let Matthew blow kisses through the phone before she ended the call.

“Gramma’s gonna come stay with us,” Matthew said as he leaped off the toilet and pulled his pants and trousers up.

“That’s right,” Rose said, watching to make sure Matthew thoroughly washed his hands rather than give them the two-second soap-free rinse he preferred. “We’re gonna snuggle and watch Paw Patrol until Grandma gets here, then Mummy is gonna go to the hospital to give birth to your little sissy.”

“My sissy’s comin’,” he said, grinning at her through the mirror.

Rose guided her son to the living room, where David was munching on a pear. _Bugger_ , she needed to start on dinner. _And_ clean up any stains from Matthew’s car seat.

“Have a nice cuddle with David,” Rose murmured to Matthew.

“No, I want Mummy,” he cried, wrapping his arms around her leg and face-planting into her thigh.

“Mummy will cuddle with you in a few minutes,” she promised.

“Noooooo!”

“I guess I can turn off Paw Patrol then,” David chimed in, grabbing the remote. He switched it to a different channel at random.

“No, I wan’ Paw Patrol!” Matthew screamed, tears beginning to leak down his cheeks.

“Guess you gotta come sit with me and watch it, then,” David said, patting the cushion. “Otherwise I’m gonna watch… er, the news.” He wrinkled his brow at the channel he’d landed on, and Rose nearly began laughing.

“You’ve gotta pick, baby boy,” Rose said. “Paw Patrol with David, otherwise he gets to pick the channel.”

“Paw Patrol, Paw Patrol!” he said, rubbing his fists into his streaming eyes and clambering onto the sofa. “David, I wanna wa’ch Paw Patrol, you _promised_!”

“Okay, okay,” he relented, and he hit the back button to bring up the cartoon.

Matthew became wholly transfixed with the television and slumped into his brother’s side, staring unblinkingly at the screen. Ignoring the guilt that came with using the television as a babysitter, Rose grabbed the kitchen roll, disinfectant wipes, and fabric cleaner, then made her way out to her car.

The mess wasn’t as bad as her mind had chosen to remember, and so it took less than ten minutes to clean Matthew’s car seat and dispel the lingering odor. While she was there, she double checked (for the hundredth time) that the new baby’s car seat was installed properly. (It was).

That task finished, Rose entered the house and began preparing dinner for her boys. All the while, she kept an eye on the clock, counting down until her mother would arrive, and timing her contractions. A tiny piece of her brain began to worry when her contractions went from ten minutes apart to six minutes apart within a half hour; but a larger piece of her brain was dedicated to caring for her sons. Once their grandmother arrived, Rose could focus wholly on herself and her daughter, but for now, she didn’t have that luxury.

When the chicken nuggets were finished, she piled them all onto a plate and returned to the couch.

“Are you hungry, Mattie?” Rose asked, pressing the backs of her fingers to his forehead. His temperature was normal. “Do you think your tummy can handle some food?”

“Yeah,” he said distractedly, his attention on the television.

“Scoot over, sweetheart.”

He dutifully shifted to the other cushion, leaving Rose room to settle down between her boys. She kept the plate in her lap, letting each boy grab nuggets at their leisure. Despite not being very hungry, Rose forced herself to nibble on the processed chicken, knowing she would need to keep up her strength and energy.

Her contractions had been getting steadily worse over the past half hour, more intense, but now that she didn’t have the distraction of cooking, cleaning, or tending to her sons, they seemed to make their presence known with a vengeance. 

Rose ground her teeth together to muffle a shout of pain as her stomach tightened and the base of her spine _burned_ with agony. She squeezed her hands into fists as she fought the urge to cry out or curse. Instead, she started counting in her head and became panicked when she got to thirty and the pain was still present.

_Forty-eight… forty-nine… fifty… fifty-one…_

Fifty-one seconds. _Shit_. _Shit shit shit shit shit._

Rose stood up from the couch with a hurriedly muttered, “Gotta wee. Keep eating your nuggets. Don’t spill on the couch. David, keep an eye on Matthew.”

She grabbed her phone and stumbled down the hall to her bedroom, where she barely managed to shut the door before pain lashed down her belly again.

 _No, no, no_. It was too fast. This was happening too quickly. She was supposed to have another couple of hours yet. Her contractions had been five minutes apart. What had happened to the delay between the pains?

Mockingly, Rose barely had half a minute’s reprieve before the next contraction hit. Her heart pounded. How was she supposed to make it to a hospital? Oh, God, what if her baby came out _right now_?

Panting for breath as one contraction rolled into the next, Rose tapped in 9-9-9 on her phone as she moved into her bathroom and sat on the closed toilet lid. As soon as the phone operator answered, Rose broke into terrified sobbing as she explained that she was in active late labor alone in a house with two small children.

“Just keep breathing, Rose,” the operator said in a soothing voice. “Breathe. I’ve dispatched paramedics to your location; they’ll be there within the next ten minutes. Tell me about your kids. How old are they?”

“David’s seven,” she rasped out, her voice thick and watery. “He’ll be eight in January. Matthew’s three and a half. Four in March. They weren’t supposed to be here. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. My mum was supposed to come stay with them and I was supposed to be at the hospital and my little girl was supposed to be delivered by a _doctor_.”

“Big breaths, Rose. The paramedics are on their way, and they’ve got training for this. You and your baby are going to be fine. Now, I’m sure you’d rather your boys stay away from this, but someone is going to need to let the paramedics into your house. Do you think your oldest boy can help with that?”

“I don’t want them seeing this,” Rose whimpered, crying into the pain that wasn’t stopping.

“I know, love. But the paramedics will be entering your house one way or another. They’re a few miles out, with about a five-minute estimated arrival time. I think it would be less scary for your sons if they knew paramedics were arriving ahead of time, don’t you agree?”

Rose sniffled, scrubbing her palms over her face. She could do this. She _would_ do this.

She pressed her mobile into her chest and called out, “David? David! Can you come to Mummy’s bathroom, please?”

At first, she didn’t hear her child moving; as she was about to shout for him again, he and his little brother appeared at the doorway to her bathroom. David’s face pinched with concern when he saw her, while Matthew beamed and stood beside her to tell her all about the Paw Patrol episode he had just watched.

“One minute, sweetheart.” She looked to her eldest. “David, your sister is on her way right now, and Mummy doesn’t have time to get to the hospital. Some doctors are coming here to help. Can you wait for them at the front door? Let them into the house and bring them back here.”

“But… I’m not s’posed to talk to strangers.”

“I know baby, but remember how I told you the police don’t count? Well paramedics—the people coming to help—are the same. They’ll be in an ambulance with flashing lights and sirens, and they’ll have a uniform on too. Please, baby, I need you to do this for Mummy. Can you be a big, brave boy?”

David screwed up his face in a determined pout that simultaneously broke and swelled Rose’s heart. He nodded, then whirled around and left the room.

“Mattie, you can help your brother,” Rose said, nudging him to the door.

“No, I’m helpin’ Mummy,” he said with a scowl.

David had left the room by now, and it seemed Matthew had made up his mind too. He stood by her side and pressed clumsy, messy kisses all across her sweaty face even as she grunted and panted through her never-ending contractions. 

It was odd, she could _feel_ her baby moving inside her, slipping lower and lower until the burning pressure was overwhelming; it wouldn’t be too much longer before Rose’s body took control and there would be nothing she could do to stop her daughter from being born.

“Mummy needs to take her trousers and pants off,” Rose said, kissing Matthew’s chubby cheek.

It was only then that Rose remembered the phone she had pressed to her bosom. She flicked it onto speakerphone mode. “Hello? Are you still there?”

“Yes, I’m here, Rose. The paramedics are nearly to your house.”

“Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize. I’m here to stay on the line with you until help arrives, to make sure you stay calm. It sounds like your boys are being very big and very brave.”

“Who are you?” Matthew asked, cocking his head to the side.

“My name is Maisie. Your mummy said your name is Matthew?”

“Uh huh,” he said. “My sissy is comin’ Miss… um… Mmm… Mase… Maysee.”

“Indeed she is. That’s why your mummy called me, so I could send people to help her and your sissy. Rose, how are you doing? How are your contractions?”

“Intense. No delay between ‘em anymore,” Rose answered as she struggled out of her trousers.

It was slow going, but eventually Rose managed. Before lowering herself to the floor, she grabbed the towel hanging on the rod outside her shower for something to protect her bum from the cold, hard tile floor. She sat on the fluffy towel, her back propped against her bathtub before she realized a shirt, while protecting any lingering modesty she had, would impede any immediate skin-to-skin contact with her newborn. And really, did any woman retain an ounce of modesty while giving birth? Rose stripped off her shirt and bra until she was utterly starkers on her bathroom floor.

“I’m gon’ get nakey too!” Matthew promptly stripped off his shirt and trousers until he was left in his pull-up.

“Remember to go wee in a toilet,” Rose said automatically. “I know that feels like a nappy, but you have to be a big boy and go wee in a toilet.”

Matthew scrunched up his face in thought, then said, “Nope, don’t gotta wee.”

The ability for speech left her in a crying gasp. Her entire body began shaking as, without her permission, her muscles clenched and contracted and she began to involuntarily bear down.

“Shit,” she cried. “ _Shit_!”

“Rose? Rose, is everything all right?”

“I… I’m delivering her… I’m pushing… _shit_!” Rose clenched her teeth against a scream as it felt like her lower body was being split in two. “Mattie, you need to leave. Leave now, Mattie. Go to David. Go help David and stay there. Get out!”

Matthew shrank away from her, but didn’t leave; Rose was close to sobbing in frustration and helplessness, unable to speak to reassure her son that she wasn’t angry with him, of course she wasn’t angry with him, and she didn't mean to snap.

“Paramedics are here!”

David pranced into the loo looking so pleased with himself. Two women in blue uniforms carrying medical bags trailed behind him and sank to the floor in front of Rose.

“David, take Matthew,” she ordered.

“Hi, Rose. My name is Dina and this is my partner, Ellie. We’re going to help you deliver your baby, now, all right? I’m going to check to see how far along you are.”

“Get my boys out of here,” Rose pleaded. “They can’t see this! David, take your brother and _get out_.”

“No!” David shouted, linking his arms around Rose’s neck. “No, I’m staying to help you, Mum.”

“I’m helpin’ too!”

Rose didn’t have the strength to argue as a searing, burning pain radiated between her legs. She cried out and clenched her hands into fists until her nails bit into her palms.

“The baby is crowning,” the paramedic between her legs said. “The head is almost out. Push into your contractions, Rose.”

“I love you, Mum,” David whispered into her ear. He stroked her hair away from her face. “You’ll feel better soon.”

Matthew kissed her temple and said, “All better. Kissies make it better.”

Tears poured down her cheeks but she couldn’t reply to her boys as she gritted her teeth and pushed into the agony of bringing life to her daughter.

“Don’t watch,” she choked out. “Keep your eyes on Mummy. Don’t watch.”

“Keep pushing, Rose,” Dina urged. “Push, push, push…”

The baby emerged in a slippery rush of pressure and subsequent emptiness. Rose let out a breathless cry when she saw that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her daughter’s neck, but Dina efficiently unlooped it, and a second later, the baby let out her very first wail.

“It’s a girl!”

The paramedic gave the baby a quick wipe-down before setting her on Rose’s chest. Rose went absolutely numb to any lingering pain and discomfort as she held her daughter and listened to those beautiful cries as her child drew breath.

“Aww, sissy!” Matthew beamed at Rose, bouncing on his toes. “It’s my sissy!”

Rose broke down into sobs as she cradled her daughter closer, brushing kisses to her damp, matted hair. The baby’s raspy screeches grew quieter and quieter until they were nothing more than discontented whimpers.

“Oh, sweetheart, my sweetheart,” Rose said, repeating the endearment over and over as she wept into the baby’s hair.

“It’s my sissy,” Matthew said again, this time in a lower register as he rested his head on Rose’s shoulder, right next to the baby’s head. “Hi sissy.”

“Do you remember sissy’s name?” Rose asked, kissing Matthew’s soft forehead. “Do you remember what Mummy said your sissy’s name is?”

“Jooooodieeeee,” he responded, stretching out the syllables.

“That’s right. Jodie.”

David knelt by Rose’s other side so that his head was level with the baby’s as well.

“Can I touch…?”

“Yeah,” Rose replied. “‘Course. Gently.”

David rested a tentative hand along the baby’s back then beamed at Rose. Her heart swelled several sizes and she wished she had a few extra arms so she could wrap her boys in a tight hug. She settled for kissing all of her children very thoroughly.

The next couple minutes passed in a blur of getting the baby properly cleaned, then delivering the placenta. Through it all, David and Matthew sat by Rose’s side, simply staring at their new sister. (Although Matthew was utterly fascinated by the placenta and asked the paramedics approximately ten thousand questions that, bless them, they answered patiently.)

A shrill shriek from down the hall interrupted the peace that had settled over the house.

“Rose? Rose?! Rose, what’s happening?! Why’s an ambulance…?”

Jackie Tyler came to an abrupt halt at the door to the bathroom, her face going utterly pale before she shouted, “You should’ve _said_ you were further along in labor! I wouldn’t’ve kept my last appointment!”

“I _did_ tell you that it seemed to be moving fairly quickly,” Rose said wearily, grinning cheekily.

Whatever retort her mother had died on her tongue as her gaze zeroed in on the pink, wrinkly baby in Rose’s arms.

“Is she all right?” Jackie asked, stepping past the paramedics to perch on the edge of the tub. “Are _you_ all right?”

“Never better,” Rose answered, electing to ignore the frantic panic that had been coursing through her for the past half hour or so. “Yeah, she’s fine. I’m fine. We’re all fine.”

Seeming to want a more professional opinion, Jackie turned to the two paramedics who were in the process of cleaning up.

“Is my daughter _really_ all right? And my granddaughter? Do either of them need to go to the hospital? I’m here to stay with the boys, if you need to take my Rose in the ambulance.”

“No, ma’am,” Ellie said. “They’re both perfectly healthy. Unless any issue arises later on, I see no need for them to get admitted to the hospital.”

“I’m fine, Mum,” Rose said, leaning her head into her mother’s side. “M’just exhausted is all.”

“Well, you can get some sleep.” Jackie kissed the top of Rose’s head, then began petting hair. “I can keep Jodie for a while, let you get some rest.”

“Nah,” Rose said, curling her arms tighter around her daughter. There was no force on this planet strong enough to make her let go of her child quite yet. “Nah, she’s fine. I think I’ll snuggle up in bed with her for a bit.”

“I wanna cuddle too,” Matthew immediately protested.

“Me too,” David said.

“Speakin’ of a cuddle, I been here for five minutes and you boys haven’t even given your old grandma a hug yet?” Jackie asked in mock indignation.

Rose shivered when the warmth of her sons left her side. David and Matthew launched themselves at their grandmother, then began giving a play-by-play of the action of Jodie’s birth. She was beyond relieved that they weren’t traumatized by the events of the past half hour.

Glad to be able to give her full attention to her newborn, Rose’s eyes scanned across the baby’s face, drinking in her features. Her splotchy pink cheeks. The ridge of her forehead and the fine dusting of her eyebrows above her murky blue eyes. Her chubby cheeks and short, stubby chin. Her scrunched nose. The delicate arch of her ears. All of it beautiful, all of it perfect.

Tears burned behind Rose’s eyes as her heart constricted in her chest until she could barely breathe.

“I love you, baby girl,” she croaked, trailing her fingertips across Jodie’s wispy dark hair. The baby snuffled and flailed a clumsy arm. “I love you so much. More than you’ll ever know.”

After giving Rose and the baby a clean bill of health, the paramedics took their leave. Loath was she to give up her baby, but Rose knew she couldn’t stay sitting on her bathroom floor on a bloody, messy towel.

“I’ll get her in a nappy and bring her right back,” her mother promised, accepting the baby from her. “David, Matthew… want to see how to put a nappy on a baby?”

The boys eagerly followed their gran while Rose stumbled to her feet. She gently cleaned herself with a damp cloth, then entered her bedroom. Her mother had Jodie on the changing table and was narrating her movements as she carefully secured a nappy around Jodie’s middle.

“Wha’s that?” Matthew asked, pointing to the umbilical cord stump.

“Don’t touch,” Jackie said. “It’s what helped your sister get food when she was in your mummy’s belly.”

Rose went to her dresser and pulled on the softest, loosest clothing she owned. Intense soreness throbbed between her legs, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been when she’d given birth to Matthew, when she’d suffered a major degree of tearing thanks to his shoulders having gotten stuck.

When she folded down the blankets on her bed, Matthew took a running leap onto the mattress and immediately settled himself in the middle of the mattress.

“Scootch,” Rose said, gingerly slipping into bed beside him. She then turned to her mother, arms outstretched.

The baby wriggled on the transfer, but as soon as Rose placed her on her bare chest, Jodie quieted. David then clambered onto the bed and tucked himself into Rose’s side, his head on her upper arm.

“I’m going to clean up your bathroom,” Jackie announced. “Don’t mind me. And I think I saw you had clothes in the wash? And dinner still left out? I’ll tidy up a bit for you. Give a shout if you need me.”

“Don’t use bleach,” Rose said. “I’ll deep clean it later, but don’t use bleach while the kids are in here.”

“Wasn’t plannin’ to, love,” Jackie soothed.

Rose nodded, and diverted her attention back to Jodie.

“I’m gonna try feedin’ her,” she told her boys as she rearranged the baby. “Mummy’s breasts make milk for her.”

“M’not ’lowed t’have milk,” Matthew said, watching as Rose worked to get the baby latched.

“That’s right.”

It took a few tries and a few painful latches before Rose felt her milk let down, and Jodie began suckling rhythmically. The baby opened her eyes and stared directly into Rose’s; suddenly there was nothing in the world apart from her and her baby. Rose was lost in those murky blue depths, wholly consumed and utterly devoted to this small child in her arms. 

Jodie reached up and rested her hand on Rose’s breast, splaying her five perfect fingers.

“Tiny fingers.” Matthew placed his hand next to his sister’s. “Teeny tiny fingers.”

“Your fingers were that small when you were a baby,” Rose said, taking Matthew’s hand to plant a kiss to his palm. “Now look at you. You’re my big boy.”

“I’m a big brother,” he said, his tiny chest puffing up with pride.

“And I’m _your_ big brother,” David said smugly, not to be out-done.

“You’re both my big boys,” Rose said before they could start squabbling. “And if you want to stay snuggled with Mummy, you need to be quiet. Yeah? Mummy is very tired, and so is your sister.”

“Can we watch a film?” Matthew whisper-shouted.

“Quietly?” David amended.

“Sure,” Rose said. 

David and Matthew scrambled out of bed and sprinted to the living room to find a DVD to put on. They returned a minute later with a few options.

“You get to pick, Mummy,” Matthew said with a grin.

He handed the stack to her; _The Lion King_ was right on top, meaning that was probably his first choice. But she gave them all a look before saying, “ _Lion King_ sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?”

His eyes lit up. “Yeah!”

Jodie flinched at Rose’s breast and unlatched, coughing and crying.

“Shhh, baby,” Rose murmured, bringing the infant to her shoulder to rub and pat her back. “Mattie, you need to use your indoor voice around your sissy. Loud noises will scare her.”

His face fell and he dropped the DVD to crawl onto the bed. He leaned into Rose’s shoulder and stroked the baby’s back as he clumsily kissed her cheek. “I’m sorry, sissy. Don’t cry. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for apologizing. That’s a very nice thing to do.”

Having popped the DVD into the player, David joined them in bed and pressed a few buttons on the remote until the opening chords of _The Circle of Life_ came through the television mounted on Rose’s wall.

Before too long, Jodie had quieted, and Rose got her latched to her breast again. The boys snuggled deep into Rose’s blankets and draped themselves into her side. While Matthew was transfixed with the film he’d already seen dozens of times, David seemed to want to watch the baby, same as Rose.

“What do you think of her?” Rose asked, kissing her eldest’s crown.

“I like her,” he said. “She’s very cute.” He tentatively reached over and slipped his finger beneath her palm. Jodie clamped her fingers tightly around it.

David nestled his cheek into her side, content to watch his sister do nothing more than breathe. Rose couldn’t blame him though; there was something addictive about watching a baby.

Jodie had finished nursing, but was still latched, suckling more for comfort than anything now. Rose grabbed the side of her cardigan and draped it over the baby’s naked body. She probably ought to get Jodie dressed, but Rose couldn’t bear the thought of losing an inch of contact with her daughter’s warm, soft skin.

Body thrumming with hormones, Rose fell deeper in love with her daughter with every passing second. She knew the intense love a mother had for her child, had experienced it daily for the past seven years since ever she held David for the first time. And yet, becoming a mother again made her fall in love with her boys all over again too.

How could one heart hold so much love for three people? How could she love her children more today than she did yesterday? How could she be so devoted to the baby she’d met only an hour ago? Already, Rose could not imagine her life without Jodie in it, and she was physically nauseated at the thought of her baby not existing.

Ever since she realized she was expecting another baby, this time as a single mother, she had been terrified. But there had been no time to indulge in that terror, between helping her boys adjust to the loss of their dad, to moving them into a new house, to preparing them for the arrival of a new baby. She’d had no time to be anything other than a mother to her boys.

Now, holding her new daughter and cuddling her two sons, Rose didn’t know why she had ever been scared in the first place. With every hug and kiss she gave her children, she was bolstered with confidence. She loved her children more than anything in the world, and really, wasn’t that the most important part of parenting?

Ever since she’d been unceremoniously thrust into the role of single mother, there was nothing on her mind apart from making this transition as easy on her children as possible. Sitting there with her children in her arms, Rose let herself take a deep breath and release the anxiety she had been harboring for the past eight months.

Rose kissed David, then Matthew, then Jodie. Her beautiful, wonderful children. Their family of three had finally become four, the most perfect number in the world, and for Rose, life could not get any more complete than it was in that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! This chapter was meant to introduce both Rose and James, but clearly I couldn't do that unless I wanted a 15k first chapter. So James's introduction will come next. If you want to get email notifications when I update, click that little "subscribe" button. And as always, comments and kudos are greatly appreciated 💜
> 
> Thanks for reading! I'm hoping to update on a bi-weekly (every other week) basis.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here we meet James and his daughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the enthusiastic and positive response to the first chapter!! I'm so glad you all fell in love with Rose and her children so quickly. I hope you'll fall in love with James and his daughter just as much. I loved that you all appreciated the names I chose for Rose's kids (yep, taken from David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Jodie Whittaker), and I hope you'll catch on to where James's daughter's name comes from.
> 
> And I know I said I was only going to update every other week, but since this chapter was originally supposed to be part of chapter 1, I decided to give you all this one a bit early. From here on out, though, the updates will be bi-weekly.

“Hiya, Daddy.”

James McCrimmon looked up from the algebra worksheet he was marking to see his daughter skipping through the door, the French braid he’d done for her that morning miraculously still intact and bouncing off her shoulders. She flashed him a grin that squeezed his heart, and he was suddenly aware of how much he’d _missed_ her over the course of the school day.

“Hiya, darling,” he said, rolling his chair away from his desk and opening his arms for her. She dropped her backpack onto an empty desk, then came up to him and vaulted into his lap. He gave her a big hug and pecked a kiss to her cheek, then turned his face to the side so she could reciprocate. “How was your day? Low and high?”

“Low: they had tinned pears for dessert at lunch,” Alex said, sighing dramatically and pulling the most disgusted expression he had ever seen on a seven-year-old’s face. “It was _so_ gross. I gave mine to Connor for the banana his mum packed him.”

He had to bite back a laugh. His daughter, through and through.

“And high: I won the class Bingo game and got a lolly. Your turn.”

“Low: I’ve got all these worksheets to mark.” He gestured to the stack on his desk. “Love the teaching, hate the marking. High: I’ve found some new slow cooker recipes that sound yummy. We can try one of them out this weekend.”

“Ooh, lemme see!”

James absently bounced his daughter in his lap as he pulled up his laptop and went to his web browser’s bookmarks, where he had saved the recipes. He pulled up each of them in individual tabs, starting with the one he thought she would like best.

“What does this say?” he asked, pointing to the title.

“Er… slow cooker… chiiiiicken and… bro… brik… brol… bro’cli. Slow cooker chicken and bro’cli?” she asked after a full minute of sounding out each word to herself.

“Broccoli,” he said, enunciating each syllable for her. “I thought that one sounded good. It’s like the Chinese takeaway we sometimes get. Here, try this one.”

He spent the next ten minutes helping her read the various recipes, and watching her face closely to see which ones she seemed most interested in. She wasn’t necessarily a picky eater, per se, but she never consistently had a favorite food; one day she would love spaghetti, then the next wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, and would be back to loving it the following week.

“I’m hungry,” Alex announced, hopping out of his lap when James closed out of the web browsers.

“Yeah? All that talk of food make you a bit peckish?” he asked as he made his way to the mini-fridge he kept beside his desk. He rooted around until he found an apple and a container of yogurt. “Which one?”

Alex wrinkled her nose at the yogurt and plucked the apple from his hand.

“Need me to cut…? Guess not.” The huge bite Alex had taken puffed out her cheeks and sent juice dribbling down her chin. He handed her a napkin and said, “Once I finish these worksheets, we’ll go home. Do you have anything to work on? Let me see your log book.”

Alex skipped over to her backpack, rummaged through it, and pulled out a small spiral-bound notebook calendar planner. She handed it to him, and he flipped to today’s date. Apart from the usual “read for twenty minutes at home”, she had no other homework.

He nodded and handed it back to her. “Once you finish your snack, I’ll let you watch something on YouTube or Netflix ‘til I finish my grading.”

Alex rolled her eyes and nodded, her mouth too full for her to form a reply. But he couldn’t help it; even though this was their normal routine, of her joining him in his classroom at the end of every school day, he couldn’t seem to stop himself from reminding her of the schedule. That he had papers to mark and lessons to plan, so she needed to sit quietly for an hour before they could go home for the night.

Listening to the sound of his daughter munching her apple, James returned his attention to the maths worksheet he had assigned to his year six students. They’d been practicing algebra with fractions, and it was very clear that some students were struggling to comprehend the importance of finding a common denominator. 

_Guess that’ll be the start of tomorrow’s class_. James jotted down a note to himself in his lesson plans.

“I’m gonna go poo,” Alex announced, chucking her apple core into the garbage and making her way to the door.

“Have fun,” he said absently, continuing to check his students’ work and making comments and corrections as needed.

When Alex returned, he queued up a few videos on YouTube for her to watch and turned on the parental controls so she couldn’t go browsing for anything else. She was usually good about following the rule that she wasn’t allowed to look up anything on the internet without his supervision.

The next half-hour passed in this fashion, of Alex giggling every now and then at something on the computer, and of James watching her every time she did it. Really, was there any sound more precious than his child’s laugh?

James finished marking the papers right as Alex’s current video ended. He came over to her and popped one of her earbuds out.

“Time to go,” he announced, scooping up the computer, logging off, and stuffing it into his bag.

James slung his bag over one shoulder and grabbed Alex’s backpack, then guided her out of the door, locking it behind them. He and Alex waved at the teachers they passed, then continued on to James’s car.

When they got home, the first thing Alex did was race to the back of the house to let in the bouncing, furry creature whimpering by the porch door.

“K9!” Alex cried, as though it had been weeks since she saw her dog rather than eight hours.

The black and white labradoodle pranced around Alex’s legs, his entire back half wriggling with excitement and pleasure as Alex crashed to her knees and smothered him with kisses and pets. He rolled onto his back, tongue lolling as Alex gave him belly rubs.

“Ready to go for a walk?” Alex cooed. “Ready for a walkie?”

K9 bounded to his feet and eagerly followed his little mistress to her bedroom, where she changed out of her school uniform. Likewise, James changed out of his work clothes and put on a worn pair of jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt. When he returned to the foyer, Alex was in the middle of securing the walking harness around K9, who, despite his rapidly-wagging tail, was standing patiently.

“Got it?” James asked, running his hands around the harness to make sure it wasn’t too loose or too tight. It felt perfect.

“Got it,” Alex answered, clipping the leash to the harness. “Walk time!”

K9 danced in place while James grabbed his keys and wallet, then opened the front door. Despite the dog’s eagerness, he didn’t pull on his leash; rather, he let himself be guided out of the house by Alex and stayed right at her heel, letting her set the pace.

James locked the door behind himself, snapped a quick photo of his child on his phone, then fell into step with Alex. As they walked, she continued recounting the minutiae of her school day, as though James couldn’t simply speak to his colleague, Clara Oswald, and ask how his child was doing in class. 

“Oh! Miss Oswald assigned a project,” Alex said.

James felt his mouth begin to frown. “As in, she just assigned one today? Or she assigned one ages ago and you forgot to tell me and it’s actually due tomorrow?”

Alex stuck her tongue out at him. “Dad- _dy_. You would’ve seen in my log book by now if I had a project due tomorrow. It’s due later this month. It’s on the solar system. We’ve got to build a model with the sun and all eight planets and the asteroid belt, and we’ve gotta try to be as accurate with the sizes as possible, so Jupiter has to be the biggest one and Mercury the smallest one, and we can try to color code them, so that means we gotta get some paint so I can paint Mars red and…”

It was impressive that she hadn’t paused for breath yet, but continued to ramble on and on about her project. _At least she’s excited about it,_ James thought.

Unlike her project on Guy Fawkes. The assignment had been to play pretend at being a museum tour guide with specialty knowledge of a famous historical figure. Each student was to stand in front of the class and talk for a few minutes about the person they’d chosen. James had practiced with his daughter every night in the days leading up to her presentation, but she utterly refused to cooperate, and had rushed through her spiel of Guy Fawkes with no facts other than the date and gruesome details of his death. It had been no surprise, therefore, when James had been called into an after-school meeting with Miss Oswald and Alex to discuss why her presentation had gone so poorly.

Alex’s response had merely been, “Guy Fawkes is so boring. He was part of a failed plot to kill a king, got caught, then died, and now we’ve got Bonfire Night, which is the only good thing about him anyway.”

Which had prompted James to tell her that loads of things in life would be boring, but she needed to execute even the most boring task satisfactorily. He wasn’t sure how well the lesson had sunk in, considering she had only done marginally better on the second chance Clara had given her to complete the project.

Presently, Alex was listing everything she knew about the various planets, from their size to the surface temperature to how many moons—if any—orbited around them. He was struck with such pride that he had created such a clever little human.

“In my day, we had nine planets,” James interrupted, tweaking the end of Alex’s braid.

“Yeah, ‘cos you’re _old_.”

“Excuse me?!” he squeaked, indignant. Alex’s eyes shone with impish humor and delight, and she flashed him a crinkly-eyed toothy grin that would thaw even the coldest of hearts. On him, it melted his entire insides until he was sure he would never love anyone more than he loved his child. 

“Love youuuuuu,” Alex sang.

“Pfff.” But he winked at her, and they continued the rest of their evening walk with easy conversation.

After an hour, they arrived back home and started heating up their dinner of leftover chicken parmesan. Alex fed and watered K9 while James tended to their food. She then grabbed two cups from the cabinet and filled them with water from the dispenser on the fridge.

“You can be Eugene tonight,” Alex said, showing him a blue cup with the _Tangled_ character stamped on it, “and I’ll be Olaf.” She held up her own blue cup with the snowman from _Frozen_.

“Perfect,” he said absently, cutting up her food and popping a piece into his mouth to test the temperature.

When their food was heated through, James brought the plates to the small, square kitchen table (really, it had been a card table back from his uni days). But with just him and his daughter, it was more than enough space for them to comfortably eat.

James mentally rehearsed his lesson plans for the following day while he ate, only half-listening to Alex, who, inexplicably, still had more to talk about. Therefore, it took a while before he realized she had asked him a question.

“Sorry, what?”

She rolled her eyes. “I _said_ , a boy in my class got a new baby sister. And I was wondering if _I_ could have a baby sister.”

James’s heart dropped, then began racing. “Er… sorry, darling. Baby sisters aren’t exactly something we can pick up at a store.”

“I know that,” she said. “But why can’t you get married and give me a baby sister?”

“It’s not that easy,” he argued. “You don’t want me to marry a random person off the street, do you? ‘Cos if I got married, this person would come live with us, and what if you don’t like them? Or what if they don’t want to be married to me? Or what if you realize having a baby sister isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and now we’re stuck with a baby? Or what if it’s a baby brother instead?”

Alex groaned and dramatically dropped her head onto the table, dangerously close to her plate. “Daddy!”

“Whatty?”

“I want a little sister!” she whined. “Everyone in my class has brothers and sisters except for me!”

“I’m sure that’s not true. Loads of kids are only-childs. I was an only child.” James helpfully neglected to tell his daughter that he, too, had once wished for a sibling of his own. “Besides, don’t you like having me all to yourself? If you had a baby sister, you’d have to share me. Babies take up a lot of time, and they’re up at all hours of the night. Besides, I quite like having you to myself. You’re my favorite girl.”

Alex harrumphed, but a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “And you’re my favorite daddy.” She sighed. “I still think it would be cool to have a baby sister. Can’t you at least _try_ to fall in love with someone to give me a chance at getting a baby sister?”

“No promises,” he said breezily. “And I’m ending this conversation now. There is nothing to be done about it. Dating and marriage are very personal decisions that are mine alone to make. Okay?” Alex’s shoulders slumped, and James winced, wishing he had chosen gentler words.

They proceeded to eat the rest of her dinner in complete silence.

Alex’s mood warmed back up in time for bedtime, where she snuggled into his side and listened to him read a few chapters of _Matilda_ , while K9 sat dutifully on the floor at the foot of the bed. When James reached a good stopping point for the night, he stuffed a bookmark between the pages and set the novel on Alex’s bedside table.

“I like Miss Honey,” Alex said. “I don’t like Matilda’s mum and dad. They’re so mean.”

“They are, yeah,” James agreed.

“You’re not mean to me,” Alex continued.

“I try not to be. Funnily, I love you quite a lot and enjoy being with you, so I don’t want to be mean to you.” He squeezed his arm around her shoulders.

Alex yawned and nuzzled deeper into her pillow, looking about five seconds away from being asleep. Carefully, James slid off the mattress and tugged her blankets up to her shoulders. Alex curled into the warm spot where he’d been sitting, her hair falling into her face. He brushed it away, then pecked a kiss to her temple.

“Nighty night,” he whispered. He backed away from the bed, then reached down to give K9 a quick scratch behind the ears. “Good boy. Keep her safe for me.”

K9 snuffled, then walked to the edge of Alex’s bed and planted himself on the floor, his bright eyes trained on the door. James smiled at his dog and his daughter, then he left the room, keeping the door slightly ajar.

He went back to the kitchen and sat with his computer at the table to get a few things finished for school the next morning. He went over his lesson plans half a dozen times, proofread the worksheets he would give to his students, and did all of the maths lesson calculations without notes to make sure he knew how to do everything properly and in a variety of ways. Hopefully something he said would stick with his students.

The lessons review took longer than he would have liked because he kept getting distracted with Alex’s conversation at dinner. That wasn’t the first time she’d asked about getting a little sibling—and it probably wouldn’t be the last—but it _was_ the first time she’d expressed such displeasure at being an only child.

Truthfully, James had never considered fatherhood until it had been thrust upon him unceremoniously. While she had turned out to be the best gift of his life, his daughter hadn’t exactly been _planned_. Even if her mother wasn’t gone, Alex would be hard-pressed to get a sibling. As much as James had naively hoped otherwise, his relationship with Alex’s mother was never meant to last; he doubted they would have procreated together again.

Blowing a tense breath out on a raspberry, James stood up from the kitchen table and went to the home office. He unlocked the bottom drawer—the one that contained important legal documents—of his filing cabinet, and reached to the very bottom of the stack. In a manilla folder, behind Alex’s birth certificate, was a small envelope containing a thin stack of near-pristine photographs.

He pulled out the photos and leafed through them. The top-most photograph had been taken by a helpful nurse seven and a half years ago, on the morning of Alex’s birth. James smiled at the sight of his red, wrinkly baby—the baby that, at the time the photo had been taken, James hadn’t yet held. 

His expression slipped when his eyes slid to the face of the woman holding his daughter. _River_. Part of his brain hated to call her _Alex’s mother_ , because what kind of mother abandoned her child like that? What kind of mother walked away and never looked back?

He idly flipped through the stack of photos. There were only a dozen or so—River hadn’t stayed around long enough to be in more photos. _Her loss_.

As satisfied as James was with his life, he couldn’t help but think about how different things would be if River hadn’t left them. They’d moved in together to better take care of Alex, and James wondered whether he and River would have eventually fallen in love through sheer proximity. Hell, they’d had enough fondness for each other to have made a baby together. Perhaps they would have become comfortable with each other and the life they’d built. Perhaps they would have relished being parents and decided to do it again, giving Alex the sibling she clearly desired.

Or maybe things would have ended just the same. Maybe rather than growing close, they would have grown to resent each other. Maybe they still would have split up. James couldn’t imagine how messy custody arrangements for Alex would have been if River had stayed but he and she had broken up and lived apart. He couldn’t imagine not having Alex every single day. He couldn’t imagine not tucking her into bed every night.

No, things had worked out for the best.

Still. For as much as he and River hadn’t been a good match for each other, she had been familiar. She had been someone he could lose himself in. It was lonely, being a single dad. There weren’t many opportunities to go out to meet new people. Everyone he spoke to regularly was already married with children, thanks to him primarily hanging out with other parents.

How did people do this? _Date_? How had _he_ gone on dates before? It felt like a different lifetime when he’d gone out on dates with other people for the sheer pleasure of company or sex. Like it had happened to someone else. Surely _he_ hadn’t been able to smile at an attractive person and convince them to have dinner or drinks with him. Surely it was simply because he’d been in university, surrounded by other horny young adults, hooking up for fun and a distraction from their studies.

It had been easy, at uni. He had made dozens of friends from sheer proximity, had been invited to loads of parties where it was no trouble at all to drunkenly make out with whoever caught his fancy that night. No strings attached.

But now he _wanted_ some strings attached. He didn’t want to fumble awkwardly in the loo for a five-minute shag. He wanted _companionship_. And most importantly of all, he wanted someone who would fit into his life with Alex, someone who knew that his daughter would _always_ take priority. 

James cursed, frustrated with and sorry for himself. He stuffed the photos of River into the envelope which he returned to the folder before closing and locking the drawer once more. He was luckier than most. He had a beautiful, wonderful child and a stable job and a nice home. How could he want anything more than that?

Damn Alex, and damn himself for getting on this train of thought. He was a twenty-eight-year-old single father, and being a father would always come first. Most people weren’t exactly content to be second-best in a relationship. And most people were turned off of him the moment he told them he was a single dad with sole custody of his child.

_If only there was a way to advertise that fact up front_ , he lamented.

He paused. _Advertise… hmmm…_ He lived in the twenty-first century, didn’t he? He had the entire internet at his disposal. Humanity at the tips of his fingers.

Before he could lose his nerve, James grabbed his phone from his pocket to send a message to one of his oldest friends. “Hypothetically, if I were to sign up for a dating app, which one do you think I should go for?”

He should have known he couldn’t have gotten away with this conversation through text; barely a minute later, his mobile vibrated against his palm in an incoming call: _Jack Harkness_.

With a heavy exhale, James crashed onto his couch and accepted the call.

“Doth mine eyes deceive me, or is James McCrimmon _actually_ trying to get laid?”

James rolled his eyes, even as a smirk lifted the corners of his mouth. “Good evening to you, too, Jack. And no, I’m not trying to _get laid_. I’m just, y’know, entertaining the possibility of going out on a date. Getting to know someone. That’s all.”

“Getting to know someone _biblically_.”

“ _Jack_.”

His friend laughed boisterously on the other end of the phone. “All right, so you’ll want to avoid Tinder then. Lots of thirsty people on that app. I assume you’re not looking to shag on the first date?”

“Well, I’m not _opposed_ ,” James said carefully, cheeks flaming, “if there’s chemistry. But I’d prefer to meet someone who is interested in a long-term relationship. I don’t want any quick flings. I, well, want a partner. And I want someone who knows how important Alex is to me and someone who accepts that and won’t try to change it.”

“I hear you loud and clear.”

Jack then launched into a ten-minute spiel about the various dating apps James could try, and providing his expert opinion on which ones would probably work best for what James was looking for.

With his new dating app downloaded onto his phone, James continued speaking to Jack for advice as he set up his profile.

“I am a: _man_. Interested in: _both_ ,” James read as he filled out his information. “That’s terrible phrasing.”

“Dating apps haven’t _quite_ mastered the art and subtle nuances of queer language,” Jack laughed. “The point is, you’ll be shown profiles of men and women, and yours will be distributed likewise.”

“Hmph. I am looking for: _something casual, something serious, friendship…_ Er, something serious? But, I mean, I’d also like to be friends with my future partner. Doesn’t everyone want to be friends with the person they’re dating?”

“Funnily enough, it doesn’t often cross peoples’ minds to be friends with their significant others,” Jack said. “Not like you can talk; you and River were just fuck buddies.”

James pursed his lips in displeasure. “We were friendly enough. We appreciated each other’s company to keep seeing each other throughout our uni days, after all. We shared enough fondness for one another that we moved in when we learned about Alex.”

“Well, yeah, ‘cos you’re a decent guy,” Jack said. “Anyone else would’ve scampered away and refused to acknowledge they’d ever had sex with the girl they’d knocked up. You know, it’s funny… you did the stereotypically “female” thing by doing the best by your child, and River did the stereotypically “male” thing by swanning off when the excitement of having a baby wore off.”

“Wasn’t very funny from where I was sitting,” James muttered darkly.

“Obviously I didn’t mean haha-funny,” Jack said gently. “Peculiar-funny is what I meant. You know how angry I am with River, even now.”

James sighed. “Thanks. I’m getting side tracked though. Oh, Jesus, how do I describe myself in five hundred characters or less?!”

“Hmm, let’s see… Single dad looking for a life partner but will show you a good time; flaming hot sexy teacher who would be down for some kinky roleplay…”

“I’m trying _not_ to attract people looking for a one-night stand, thanks,” James interrupted with a growl. “Shut up and let me think.”

It was harder than it should have been, but after five minutes of typing and deleting, James finally read out his profile bio: “I’m interested in finding a romantic partner. I’m a single dad of a beautiful seven-year-old girl who is my whole world. We like to play board games together and take walks with our dog. She likes to experiment in the kitchen, so we’re always cooking and baking. We love to travel and make a point of visiting a city we’ve never been to on school holidays. We also enjoy quieter pastimes of visiting museums or art galleries. If any of this appeals to you, send me a message.”

James knew he’d done something wrong by the half a dozen impatient sighs Jack let out the longer he rattled off his bio.

“As delightful as Alex is, people want to date _you_ , not your daughter,” Jack said in exasperation.

Cheeks heating, James skimmed back over what he’d written and mumbled, “Well… it’s all true. I can’t help it Jack. Alex is my life.”

“I know,” Jack said softly. “I know she is. But you know you’re allowed to have a life apart from your child, right?”

“Pfff, well nobody told me.” James groaned and dug the heel of his hand into his eyes. “It’s hopeless. _I’m_ hopeless. I’m nearly thirty and have no bloody idea how to get someone to go on a date with me. I can’t even bloody figure out online dating.”

“You’re a perfect catch for _someone_ ,” his friend soothed. “But to find that someone, we need to tailor your profile a little bit. I’m not saying to cut all mentions of Alex out of it, because your future partner ought to know how seriously you take this fatherhood thing. But you need to put more of yourself into your profile. Believe it or not, you’re actually a pretty great person outside of your role as hot dad.”

James’s chest tightened and acid churned in his gut. “This was a bad idea. I’m sorry.”

“No no no,” Jack said hastily, “c’mon, don’t give up yet. We can figure this out. There’s got to be someone on this damp little island who wants to shag your brains out _and_ fall in love with your ridiculously big heart. Let’s brainstorm. You’re dead clever and dead sexy. You know how to have a good time out but also can enjoy a lazy day in. You’re a devoted dad and are eager to bring someone else into your tight-knit family unit. You’re looking for friendship and companionship with your romance.”

James hurriedly typed out Jack’s suggestions as he said them until they were hindered by the character count limit. They then spent the next ten minutes tweaking descriptions of the main aspects of James’s personality so that his strengths were put on clear display in a neat, concise bio.

“Oh bugger,” James said when he tapped the forward button on the app. “Jack, I don’t really have any photos of myself. Alex is in nearly all of them.”

“That’s fine. Just make sure your face is in it too.”

“No, I meant… I’m not comfortable having my seven-year-old daughter’s face in an app meant for adults to _hook up_ ,” he bit out, his pulse rising with his anxiety. “Anyone with the app will be able to see her photograph and…”

“First off, breathe,” Jack said. “Secondly, you don’t need to show her face. Use a photo editing app to blur her face or stick an emoji over it.”

“On second thought, I really don’t want to do this,” James said, half-queasy. “Me meeting a stranger on the internet is vastly different from exposing _my daughter_ to a stranger on the internet.”

“Well, then you’re going to die a sad, horny, lonely old man,” Jack retorted. “Honestly, James. You don’t need to introduce any of your matches to Alex until _you’re ready_ to do so. It’s not like the app is gonna force you to take Alex along on any future dates you may have. You can chat with someone for weeks or even months before you see them in person, if you’d like. You have total control with this process.”

After a lengthy pause, Jack asked, “Out of curiosity, when was the last time you got laid? Is this sudden desire to date actually you just being lowkey horny? Because if this whole dating app thing is stressing you out this badly, maybe we need to change gears a bit.”

James’s cheeks and neck flushed. “I… that’s… I’m not… that’s none of your business, Jack.” But his friend remained silent, until James sighed. “Last Christmas. Going-away party for a year four teacher, Henry. Alex was spending the night with her cousins, so a group of us continued the celebration at the pubs. Henry and I got rather drunk. He invited me back to his place. We ended up in bed together.”

“Mmm. Was the sex good?”

“Again, not that it’s any of your business, but yes, it was,” he answered with a sniff. Though the specific details of the night were a tad hazy, James remembered enough to know he’d had a great time with Henry. They’d spent hours kissing and touching and simply _being_. The knowledge that, come morning, James would go home while Henry would be moving north to start his new job made it easier to relax and enjoy himself without worrying about what came next.

“So, yeah, it’s been a while, but that’s not why I’m doing this. I think I’m having a quarter-life crisis.”

“Enh, you’re probably closer to a third-life crisis,” Jack teased, “but go on. What’s this quarter-life crisis?”

James told his friend all about Alex asking why she doesn’t have baby siblings, and how she would really like a baby sister. Which in turn caused James to reevaluate what he wanted from his life.

“I’m lonely, Jack,” he murmured, chest tightening. “I love my daughter with every fiber of my being, but…”

“But it’s not the same as having adult companionship,” Jack finished gently. “I get it. It’s okay, you know? You can be content with your life on the whole but still wish for _more_.”

“It’s hard to untangle the two without feeling like I’m displeased with Alex, or guilty that she isn’t enough,” James admitted. He let out a loud, rumbling groan, desperate to change the subject lest he fell deeper into his self-pity. “Right. Photos. Which ones should I choose?”

“You’ve got really cute freckles—try to pick ones that highlight those. Or your jawline. Or your height. If I didn’t have Ianto, I’d climb you like a goddamn tree.”

James barked out an embarrassed laugh as he scrolled through his camera roll; it was full of his daughter and dog. Jack helpfully texted him a few pictures he had of James, and within ten minutes, James uploaded half a dozen photographs to his profile. A pink heart emoji covered Alex’s face in the four that she appeared in.

“Thanks for helping me set this up,” James said, sheepish. “I’m a bit stupid when it comes to all this stuff. Social media and dating sites.”

“It’s no trouble at all. I’m just doing my best-friend duty in trying to get you laid. If you get truly desperate though, I’m sure Ianto would be amenable with opening up our bed for a night…”

James rolled his eyes. “That’s my cue to end this phone call. Goodnight, Jack.”

“G’night James. Pleasant dreams. Let me know if you start talking to anyone through the app.”

With a noncommittal grunt, James ended the call. He had been speaking with Jack for longer than he’d thought and was dismayed to see it was approaching eleven o’clock. Returning his attention to his phone, James’s stomach flipped over with nerves and anticipation when he tapped the big green “publish” button; nanoseconds later, his profile was made public, and with it, he was shown a rotating list of potential matches. Not having the brain power to read anyone’s profile, he closed out of the app and got himself ready for bed.

When he stepped into his bedroom, though, a surprise waited for him: Alex was tucked under the blankets and K9 was sprawled on the floor in front of her. James approached his daughter and pressed the backs of his fingers to her forehead, fearing an illness had drawn her into his room, but her skin wasn’t any warmer than it should be.

She stirred at his touch. Her eyelids fluttered before opening. She blinked blearily, as though she wasn’t sure where she was.

“Hiya, darlin’,” he whispered, crouching. He carded his fingers through her hair; she hummed, falling back to sleep instantly.

Concluding that she had most likely sleep-walked to his room—a habit she’d had since toddlerhood and was slowly growing out of—James left her where she was. She’d go back to her own bed if she wanted to.

Silently, he changed into his pajamas, washed his face, and brushed his teeth before climbing into bed. Alex remained dead asleep, curled up on her side. His heart clenched and he leaned over to kiss her temple.

“Good night, sweetheart. Daddy loves you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this introduction to James and Alex! If you did, be sure to tell me in the comments and by leaving me a kudos, if you haven't already 😘 I absolutely love hearing from you all and knowing what you liked about the chapter.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another stressful shopping trip, and a first meeting that definitely isn't what would usually be considered a "meet cute".

_I am never bringing the kids shopping again_.

Why was it that any time Rose attempted to make a quick little jaunt into a store with her children, it turned into a fiasco? There was no danger of her inconveniently going into labor, at least, but that was a mere minor improvement.

Since the birth of her daughter and the start of her maternity leave, Rose had gotten into the habit of running all of her errands after she’d dropped the boys off at school. Jodie was usually in a good mood—not like three-week-old babies really _had_ moods yet—and was content to curl against Rose’s breast in the baby sling while her mother shopped for food or clothes or supplies. It was almost peaceful to have no one but a newborn to look after. Rose dreaded the day she would have to return to work; luckily, she didn’t have to worry too much about that for another six to twelve months, depending on how long she wanted her leave to last.

Just when she was confident she had this single-mum-to-three-children thing down, David climbed into the car during school pick-up, a sheepish expression on his face and told her about a project he _only just_ remembered was due the following day.

“I need supplies,” he concluded, thrusting a sheet of paper into her face.

Her eyes narrowed as she skimmed the outline of the project. _Model of the solar system… Fucking hell_.

“How did you forget about this until now?” she snapped.

David shrank away from her tone, and she cursed herself. Yes, he should have been more responsible, but _she_ was the parent. She should have been checking his assignments book more thoroughly, regardless of the fact that she was sleep-deprived and scatterbrained thanks to Jodie.

Drawing in a deep breath, she said, “Fine. We’ll go to the craft store and see what we can find. Sweetheart, you _really_ need to stay on top of your assignments, especially big projects like this. I know things at home have been busy and different and we’re all still adjusting, but I can’t remember everything between the three of you, hard as I try. You’re a big boy and if I’ve forgotten about one of your assignments, I need you to step up and remind me.”

Her eldest nodded meekly, and she was crippled with such guilt that she nearly told him to not worry about it, and that she would call his teacher and explain that he wouldn’t have his project ready in time for tomorrow’s class. But no, this would be a good lesson for the two of them. Hopefully David would see how much effort it took to get something done at the last minute, and she would be more diligent with keeping up with his schoolwork.

After picking Matthew up from nursery, he immediately realized that they were not going home.

“Mummy, s’the wrong way,” he said when she turned right on a street that would take her into town, rather than left, which would take them home. “It’s’not the way home.”

“I know,” she said patiently, “but we need to stop by the store really quickly before we go home.”

“I wanna go home,” Matthew whined, thrashing his legs.

“We will,” Rose soothed, “as soon as we pick some stuff up for David’s project. He’s gonna be making a model of the solar system, with all the planets. Won’t that be fun to help him make tonight? You love crafts.”

“Nooooo! I wanna go _home_!”

 _Damn_. “Matthew, enough. We have to go to the store, then we’ll go home.”

But her three-year-old voiced his dissent rather loudly, which made David snap at him. The sound of their raised voices sent Jodie into a whimpering fit, causing the ache behind Rose’s eyes to throb sharply.

Ten minutes of ceaseless crying later, Rose pulled into the car park of the craft store. She first attended to her youngest, gathering her up close and peppering kisses all across her fair skin.

“Mummy’s here,” Rose murmured, rocking her torso slowly. “Shhh, sweetheart. You’re okay. Mummy’s here. Your big brothers were bein’ pretty loud, weren’t they? But Mummy’s here, and you’re okay, my love.”

She nuzzled her nose and lips to the crown of Jodie’s head, but when it became clear that the infant was in no mood to quiet down, Rose turned her attention to her middle child. Matthew continued to screech his displeasure and kicked at the seat in front of him.

“Enough,” she said curtly. “Stop this right now. We are going into the craft store, and that is _final_. If you carry on like this, you’ve lost dessert privileges for the rest of the week. Good boys can have ice lollies after dinner, and you are not being a good boy.”

Matthew didn’t seem to care, and he cried out even more loudly when Rose unbuckled him from his seat, half dragging him out of the car. He made to bolt away from her as soon as his feet touched the ground, but she snagged his arm and pulled him back towards her, her heart in her throat.

“Matthew Peter Tyler,” she growled, crouching in front of him, “don’t you _ever_ run away from me like that again. We are in a car park and it is _not_ safe for you to run away from Mummy. What if a car had been there? You are going to quit your whining _right now_. We are going into this store to buy supplies for David’s project.”

Rose hated that she’d raised her voice, but something must have penetrated through to his brain, because he stopped struggling as much, though he still whimpered pitifully.

“I wanna go _home_!” he hiccupped.

“Shopping first, then home,” Rose replied. “It’ll take half an hour at most. Thirty minutes. We’ve watched films longer than that. Come now. Do _not_ let go of Mummy’s hand.”

Matthew complied for all of sixty seconds, letting Rose haul him into the store, before he let his body go utterly limp. With gravity acting on all fifteen kilos of the toddler, Matthew’s hand slipped from Rose’s as he sprawled on the dirty tile floor. Clearly not expecting his mother to have let go of him like that, Matthew shrieked and thrashed as though he’d fallen from a great height. (As though he didn’t regularly leap off of the furniture of their house, often tucking and rolling as he pretended to be an action hero.)

The sound of her brother’s screams invigorated Jodie’s; she let out raspy, breathy wails as she writhed as much as her tiny body could.

David, meanwhile, tugged at the hem of her jumper and moaned, “Mu- _uuum_. Come _on_! Make him shut up and let’s _go_.”

“Quiet,” she hissed, tears of frustration prickling behind her eyes. _We wouldn’t be in this bloody mess if you’d remembered your bloody project in the first place_. Rose mercifully caught those words before they escaped, reminding herself on repeat that David wasn’t solely to blame and that, in the grand scheme of things, a simple school project wasn’t worth making him feel badly about himself. Just as long as it didn’t become a habit for him to forget major projects.

Other shoppers were beginning to stare, but Rose ignored them as she tried to figure out what to do. Maybe she ought to get the kids home and ask a neighbor to watch them for an hour while she went out by herself for supplies. But would that teach Matthew that he could successfully pitch a fit whenever he didn’t feel like doing something? That if he made a scene, she would pick him up and give him whatever he wanted without consequence?

But what if he was genuinely distraught and hurting? Was he not feeling well? Was he two minutes away from him being sick all over himself? Would she get him home only to realize he was running a fever?

She was so wrapped up in her own head that she didn’t notice someone had approached her.

“Er… Excuse me? Hello?” Rose glanced up to meet a fair, freckled face. A pair of bright brown eyes were furrowed in a frown that didn’t look disapproving like everyone else’s expression. “Are you all right?”

“Does it _look_ like I’m all right?” she snapped, finally having an outlet for her frustration that wasn’t her children.

The man blinked and scrubbed his hand along the back of his neck, dull pink patches spreading high up on his cheeks. But Rose couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry, not when Jodie arched so violently that it was a struggle to keep a secure grip on the baby, not when Matthew thrashed and screamed from the floor like he was being murdered.

“I suppose not,” the man admitting, flashing her a sheepish grin. “Silly question. Sorry. I guess I ought to phrase my words better. What I meant was, do you need help? I didn’t want to come across as assuming you needed help, or to make you feel self-conscious. Sorry. But you look like you could use another pair of hands at the moment. And I rather adore children. I spend all the time I have around them, actually. They’re great fun—such curious little creatures, it’s _amazing_ to see the way their minds work—but can be quite a handful to manage at times. I could take one of them off your hands for a few minutes. Perhaps your littlest one? Baby girl, I think? Not to say that baby boys can’t wear pink rainbow onesies. Anyway, she wouldn’t know me from Adam and will probably still scream, which is fine, but I don’t think your boy would take well to a stranger and…”

Rose’s head was spinning as she tried to digest this man’s rapid-fire dialogue. She understood the gist of it, and now she _really_ wanted to start crying; it was just her luck, wasn’t it, to come across an absolute _creep_ while two of her children were having a meltdown.

“Get away from me, _now_ ,” Rose snarled. She wrapped her arms tighter around Jodie, then pivoted towards Matthew, placing herself between her son and this… _predator_. Her heart raced when she couldn’t immediately find her eldest, but she eventually saw him picking out a shopping basket. Her eyes scanned the area around David, on the lookout for anyone who might be working with this strange man, who might be trying to get David on his own. But he was alone, with nobody paying him any undue attention. “Get away from my children. Do not touch them. Do not come near them. Do not come near me. So help me, I will scream for security if you take one more step—”

“Hi Mr. McCrimmon!”

The man, whose face had been slowly growing paler, turned to David, who was skipping towards them with a basket swinging on his arm. The stranger blinked, then smiled and crouched down to David’s height. Rose darted forward and intercepted her eldest; she grabbed him by the upper arm and yanked him behind her, probably with more force than necessary, but she would rather David have a sore arm than be taken away by this person.

David squirmed against her grasp. “Mu- _uuum_. It’s Mr. McCrimmon. From school. _Ow_! Lemme go, you’re hurting me.”

“From… school?” Rose asked, her brain not quite able to catch up. But she loosened her fingers around her son’s arm. She eyed the man in front of her warily, still in fight mode and ready to do anything to keep her children safe. “He’s not your teacher.”

David let out an aggravated sigh of the long-suffering that rankled Rose’s frayed nerves. “Of course he’s not. Miss Oswald is my teacher. He teaches a higher year. But he’s my friend Alex’s dad.”

_Who the hell is Alex?_

“I’m so sorry,” the man said, standing again. He towered over her, and seemed to realize it, because he hurriedly backed up a step. “My words did _not_ come out well at all. Stupid gob. Can I try this again? Hello, I’m James McCrimmon.” He stuck his hand out to her; when Rose did nothing but stare at him, he tucked his hand into his pocket and continued, “I’m a year six teacher at Arcadia Academy, where I’ve got a child in year three. Parent to parent, I noticed you might need a bit of help. I didn’t mean to come across the way you took it. Admittedly, it _is_ rather suspicious for a man to walk up to a woman alone with her children out of the blue and offer to hold one of them. I promise, I meant no ill intent. I _mean_ no ill intent. Though why would you even trust my word. I’m a stranger, aren’t I? But I’d like to help you, if I am able. I’ve been in your shoes of trying to get a bit of shopping done with a screaming child in tow. It’s tricky and exhausting, and I’d never wish that kind of torment on anybody and—”

“God, do you _ever_ shut up?” Rose groaned, pressing the heel of her hand between her eyes where a raging headache had formed. It throbbed heavily when she remembered that, even once she and her children managed to return home, she was in for a long night of helping David with his goddamned solar system project.

“Not really,” the man admitted. He rocked back and forth between his toes and his heels, a boyish grin tugging at one corner of his mouth and carving a dimple into his cheek.

Rose wracked her brain, fighting off the urge to tell this man to _fuck off_ and leave her alone. As much as she hated to admit it, she could use a bit of help, even if it came in the form of a stranger. Jodie was crying so loudly that Rose was beginning to shake with frustration. If they were home, she would have set the baby in her crib until Rose had calmed down a little. But they were out in public, and Rose didn’t have the baby sling since she hadn’t planned on visiting the store. And calming Matthew would probably involve lots of hugs and snuggles, which she couldn’t give to him while holding a furious infant.

She took a moment to observe this man—James. She hadn’t realized how young he was. He couldn’t be much older than she was. Thirty, at most. His hair was a messy brown mop atop his head, with a pair of glasses lost amidst the unruly locks. Apart from his casual white, well-worn plimsolls, he was dressed smartly in slim-fitting black trousers that were just on the right side of too tight, paired with a powder-blue oxford shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms. The top two buttons were undone, exposing a white undershirt beneath. On his chest was a sparkly gold star sticker that either he didn’t know was there, had forgotten was there, or was leaving there because it was placed lovingly by the child he said he had.

Something tightened in Rose’s chest when she met his eyes, impossibly soft and deeper than brown eyes usually were. They were so expressive, so _alive_ , an open book waiting to be read. She was captivated by those eyes as a layer of tension suddenly left her body.

_What the hell?_

Shaking herself out of her daze, Rose heaved out a sigh and demanded, “Gimme your keys, your wallet, and your phone.”

James blinked. “Pardon?”

“If I’m gonna hand you my baby, I’m takin’ everything off of you, mate. Phone. Keys. Wallet. Now.”

“Well, I don’t have my phone on me. Forgot it in my car. But here.” He rooted in his pocket before extending his hand to her, the demanded keys and wallet in his grasp. His fingers were warm and gentle where they brushed her palm. His key ring was simple, only four other keys with his car key, and a poorly-braided keychain decoration.

Rose stuffed the keys into her side pocket and his proffered wallet into her back pocket. A cold sweat broke out across her body when James held out his arms for Jodie. What was she _doing_ , about to hand her baby to a _stranger_?

“I just want to help,” he said, his voice a low, comforting rumble. “That’s all. One parent to another.”

Inhaling deeply, Rose kissed her wailing baby, then glared at James. “Stay in my line of sight. Don’t you dare move an inch.”

James straightened his spine and snapped off a sharp salute that made a smile tug at Rose’s lips. “Yessir.”

After another kiss, she carefully transferred Jodie into James’s strong, warm arms. Expertly, he adjusted his grip on Jodie, keeping her neck and head well supported in the crook of his elbow and his opposite palm.

“Hello, sweetheart,” he cooed, bouncing lightly. She shrieked in reply. “What’s your name, eh?”

Though he looked questioningly at Rose, David beat her to the punch. He peeked out from behind her legs and said, “Jodie. She’s not quite a month old. She was born on September twenty-fourth.”

“David, stay with me,” she commanded, but now that her arms were empty of her baby, Rose turned her attention to her toddler.

He was still going strong with his fit; or, rather, he was pretending to be in the middle of a raging fit. Despite his cries, no tears were leaking down his cheeks.

“Matthew,” Rose said, crouching down in front of her child, “what are you doing?”

“I wanna go _home_!”

“I said we would go home after we visit the store,” Rose said with more patience than she felt.

“No, I don’t wanna!”

“There will be a lot of things in life you don’t wanna do. But we have to do them anyway. Like eating our veggies at dinner, or visiting the store for David’s project before we can go home.”

Matthew let out a scream that raised the hairs on the back of Rose’s neck. Several nearby shoppers winced at the noise.

“Matthew, enough,” she said wearily. “Mummy does not have the energy for this, and you’re disturbing everyone in the store. You need to be a big boy and calmly come shopping with Mummy. We are not going home until we get everything we need for David’s project, and that’s final. The longer you sit here and cry, the longer it will be before we go home.”

She knew inflicting logic on a three-and-a-half-year-old wouldn’t do much good, but it made Rose feel better than merely yelling at her son to be quiet. As predicted, Matthew arched his back like a child possessed, and he let out in an unholy screech.

Praying for patience and strength, Rose reached down and picked up her son. They were going to pick up David’s art supplies, goddammit, even if that meant she was carrying a thrashing toddler the entire time.

Matthew wailed and flailed his arms and legs, landing a solid _kick_ to Rose’s hip.

“Ouch!” she shouted, more loudly than she needed to in order to get his attention. “Matthew, we _do not kick_. Ever. That hurt Mummy.”

He responded with more cries. Rose simply tightened her grip around him and utterly ignored his protestations as she turned back to James. Having disregarded his mother’s wishes, David was at James’s side and leaning up on his tiptoes to look at his baby sister.

Rose’s chest ached. For as much as she’d resented her boyfriend by the end of their relationship, she hated that Jimmy wasn’t there to meet their daughter. It had melted Rose’s heart when Matthew had been born to see Jimmy holding the baby in one arm and David in his other. What would he have looked like to cradle this small baby girl while their two sons clambered onto his lap to see their new sister?

Shaking those memories out of her head, she shifted Matthew farther back on her hip to extend her other arm for her baby. “Thanks. I can take her now.”

James blinked, making no move to give Jodie back. “Er… would you like me to keep her ‘til you’ve finished your shopping?” He bounced and rocked his torso as Jodie whimpered pitifully into his chest. “I was chatting with my new mate David and realized he’s here to pick up some of the same materials I am. Makes sense… our kids are in the same class, after all, so they’ve got the same project. Mine didn’t remind me ‘til a few days ago, and I haven’t had the time to buy crafting supplies ‘til now. We’re in for a long night, I’m afraid.”

“David only informed me of it when I picked him up from school,” Rose said, fighting her urge to glare at her son.

James winced. “Yikes. My point was, we need the same supplies. Or at least similar ones. We can shop for them together, if you want. Makes more sense than us going our separate ways, when your two little ones are so displeased still.”

“Fine,” Rose said. “Just… fine. Whatever. Let’s go.”

James nodded and pulled a crumpled list out of his pocket, then led the way through the craft store, humming to Jodie and getting David’s opinion on the various supplies before dumping them into the basket the seven-year-old carried.

Matthew quieted after five minutes, but started crying again when Rose made to set him on his feet. Her arms were trembling and numb from carrying him for so long, but rather that than another meltdown. She hugged him closer and tried to keep herself from cocking out a hip for counterbalance, lest she give herself a major backache by the time they made it home. 

Shopping with a stranger wasn’t as terrible as Rose was expecting. James was efficient in his aisle wanderings and gently redirected David’s attention when the boy got distracted with supplies they didn’t need. She didn’t know how she would have made it through the shopping trip if not for him; by the time they made it back to her car a half hour later, she was thoroughly exhausted, mentally and physically.

It was a relief to put Matthew in his car seat. Her arms were shaking nearly nonstop when the weight of her son was no longer in them. She was annoyed to see him close his eyes and fall asleep as soon as he was strapped in, looking positively angelic despite the hellacious tantrum he’d thrown.

James and David were at the back of the car, sifting through the bags to make sure they each got the correct items. David slammed the boot shut and said, “Bye Mr. McCrimmon!” before he jogged around to the other side of the car and vaulted into his seat.

Approaching, Rose mumbled, “Thanks for all your help.” Her cheeks heated as she gestured to take Jodie back. “I owe you.”

“Nonsense,” James said, handing her the baby.

Jodie blearily blinked open her eyes, then promptly shut them again, digging her face into her mother’s chest. Rose kissed her daughter’s head and swayed her slowly, unsure of how to end the conversation since James wasn’t doing it himself.

“Not to continue to force my presence on you for longer than is needed,” he said, stuffing his fists deep into his pockets, “but our kids are doing the same project. I thought—well, I _hoped_ —maybe it would be a good idea to have each other’s phone numbers? If nothing else than to commiserate over our childrens’ shitty projects? As one parent to another? I officially take off my teacher cap when I get home, and I put on my dad cap and turn into any other frustrated parent helping their child with their school work.”

“Do you speak this fast when you’re teaching your students, Mr. McCrimmon?” Rose asked, unable to force down her grin.

James’s cheeks flushed pink as he grimaced. “That usually shows up on all my evaluations, unfortunately. Ah well. My students don’t seem to mind, most of the time. I think they think I’m silly. My own child certainly thinks I’m silly.”

“So your son is friends with mine?” Rose asked.

“Daughter,” James corrected. Before Rose could apologize, he waved her off. “Common mistake. Alexandra’s her full name. Been calling her Alex her whole life though. And yeah, appears that way. I can’t remember if she’s mentioned a David before, though.” His cheeks reddened. “I mean, not to discount that they’re friends or anything.”

“I don’t remember David ever mentioning an Alex, either,” Rose assured. “To be honest, it’s like herding cats, trying to keep up with my kids’ friends.”

“Oh, I know!” James groaned. “Not only do I have to keep track of the kids in my class, I’ve got to keep track of Alex’s best friend of the week. And I’ve only got the one child, you’ve got _three_!”

“Well,” Rose drawled, “Jodie doesn’t exactly make many friends her age. Matthew’s a social butterfly though. He’s best friends with everyone in his nursery class. His language skills are pretty good, but sometimes when he gets going on one of his stories about his friends from nursery, I tune him out and hope he hasn’t said anything important.”

James tipped his head back and laughed, and Rose found herself grinning in return.

“Well, seeing as our kids are at least acquainted with each other, would you like to arrange a playdate for them?” James asked. “They can run around like nutters and we can have a grownup chat.”

“That sounds nice,” Rose said honestly. In the months since they’d moved to their new house, she hadn’t met many other parents. She certainly hadn’t scheduled any play dates apart from letting David visit some of the neighbor’s houses, or join in with the kids playing in the streets of their quiet neighborhood.

“Brilliant,” he said, beaming. “Do you have your phone on you? Mine’s in my car. Speaking of, you’ve got my keys and wallet.”

“Oh!” Rose had forgotten all about the foreign weight in her pockets. She shuffled her hold on Jodie, then grabbed the car keys and wallet and handed them back to James. Then she grabbed her phone and thrust it at him. “Here, add your name and phone number.”

James tapped on her phone, then looked up. “D’you mind if I send myself a text, so I’ll have your number?”

Rose nodded her agreement.

“What name will I be adding to my contact information?”

Rose furrowed her brow before she had the mortifying realization she’d never introduced herself. “Sorry! I’m Rose. Rose Tyler.”

“Rose Tyler,” the man said, the syllables rolling off his tongue far more smoothly than they ought to. “Nice to meet you, Rose.”

James handed her phone back to her half a minute later, then stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Right. Well. Guess this is goodbye. Got to go collect my child. Relieve my cousin from babysitting duty.” He hefted up the bags with the craft supplies. “Get started on this blasted solar system project. I’m rubbish with art projects. This is gonna be so embarrassing. I’m friends with David and Alex’s teacher; she’s gonna tease me mercilessly.”

“Text me,” Rose said earnestly, finding that she was happy to have made a new friend. Or at least a new acquaintance. She’d fallen out of contact with many of her old friends after she and her children moved away from London. It had broken her heart to learn that, once she stopped initiating conversation, nobody else had bothered to keep in touch. Hardly any of her old friends had asked if she’d had her baby yet. She firmly pushed those thoughts aside. “I can try to give you pointers. Or I’ll moan with you that David’s project is turning out to be rubbish too.”

James let out a giggle from low in his throat as his eyes sparkled. “Well, I’ll see you around, Rose Tyler.”

With a lazy, two-fingered salute, James whirled on his heel and began walking away, his long, lean legs eating up the distance in no time until Rose lost him behind a row of vehicles.

A small smile remained on her lips, and she had to bite at them to try and get her mouth back into a more neutral expression. Though there was nothing to be done about the lingering heat in her cheeks or the pleasant tightness in her chest. God, how long had it been since she’d spoken to another adult—apart from her mother—for longer than a polite, impersonal thirty-second chat? She hadn’t known how much she craved adult conversation. Jimmy hadn’t exactly been chatty, but she had been able to talk about something other than Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, or Disney with him.

Realizing how daft she must appear standing there looking at nothing, Rose gave her head a little shake and walked to the driver’s side of her car. Sliding into the seat, her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror to check on the kids; Matthew and Jodie were asleep, as though they hadn’t been screaming and crying mere minutes ago, and David was absently kicking his feet and staring out the window.

“Everyone buckled in and ready?” Rose asked, mostly to her eldest. She met his gaze in the mirror, and he offered her a tentative smile that she returned. “I’m sorry this trip to the store was so stressful, love.”

David merely shrugged. “Mr. McCrimmon was nice. It was weird seeing him outside of school though.”

“I’ll bet. When I was a kid, I used to think all the teachers slept in school,” Rose confided with a conspiratorial wink.

David beamed broadly. “That’s so silly.”

“It is a bit silly, isn’t it? All my teachers were cross old bats though—it wouldn’t’ve surprised me if they all lived in misery in the school together.” 

He giggled, the sound so warm and light that Rose’s spirits instantly lifted. Gone was her annoyance at her children for making what should have been a simple outing so frustrating.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper,” Rose said. “I’m still learning how to manage the three of you.”

“You’re the best mum in the world,” he promised, blowing her a kiss.

Her chest crumpled in on itself, and she hurriedly turned her attention elsewhere before her son could see the tears blooming in her eyes.

“I wish Dad was here though,” David continued, his voice low.

Rose’s tears spilled over and she impatiently wiped them away before saying, “I know, baby.”

She didn’t miss her boyfriend as much as her children missed their father, and the guilt of that threatened to consume her. So she locked those thoughts away to examine later, when she was alone and free to wallow in guilt and self-pity.

Reaching behind her seat, she rested her hand on David’s knee. His smaller hand covered hers and squeezed her fingers as she said, “Let's go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I love hearing from you all. If you read the chapter and enjoyed it, consider leaving a comment and kudos (if you haven't already kudos-ed the story) 💜 Knowing people are interested in this story makes me want to work on it, meaning more frequent updates 😘


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Rose commiserate the frustrations of doing a school project at the last minute.

“I ran into a friend of yours at the craft store,” James said, glancing into his rearview mirror to catch his daughter’s eye, on their way home from his cousin’s house to start on the blasted solar system project.

“Ooh, which one? Did you say hi?”

“David Tyler, and yes I did,” he answered. “He and his mum were there buying supplies for the planets project too. Turns out we’re not the only ones scrambling at the last minute.”

“David’s mum just had a baby,” Alex said, her tone a tad wistful. “Did you meet the baby?”

Noncommittal, James hummed, not wanting to rekindle Alex’s desire for a little sibling. After holding Jodie though, and chatting with David about the baby, there was a palpable _ache_ inside of him, a combination of longing and sorrow. Longing to have a larger family, and sorrow that that future wasn’t looking promising.

After nearly three weeks of casually messaging a handful of men and women from the dating app, none of his matches seemed to be going anywhere. So far, he’d been propositioned for sex by half a dozen people after only having chatted for a few days (or even a few hours). He’d entertained the idea a couple times—perhaps, as Jack suggested, a good shag was all he needed—but just as quickly dismissed it. Even though his skin grew warm and tight at the thought of being intimate with someone, of pressing up against another person and being consumed by them, the feeling was muted by the pang in his chest that craved a deeper intimacy. Gone, evidently, were the days of his youth when he could be wholly satisfied by a drunken romp in the loo of a pub.

“Would you like to hang out with David this weekend?” James asked, shaking himself out of his head. “We can go to the park and the two of you can play with K9.”

Alex squealed her delighted approval, and James made a mental note to text Rose to make official arrangements.

When they got home, the first thing James did was make a pot of coffee, knowing he would need a caffeine fix to get him through the night ahead. As it brewed, they made a plan of attack for the project. Alex’s teacher provided a few suggestions for how to go about making the model; the one they decided on was a flat-lay poster board with hemispherical planets glued to the surface.

Despite Alex whining that she was _starving_ , he made her paint the large poster board inky black.

“That needs to dry before we can paste the planets onto it,” James told her when she pouted and fake-sniffled. “Otherwise, we’ll be up ‘til midnight and you’ll be Miss Grouchy Pants tomorrow morning when I go to wake you. This’ll cut down on our time. More painting, less moping.”

Though his heart twisted, telling him he was a horrible father to deprive his child of food, he continued splaying protective newspapers atop their small kitchen table in preparation for painting. He lamented that he never invested in a larger table; it would certainly make the project easier if they could spread out their work across a larger area. Maybe he’d start browsing for a new kitchen table. This one had served him well for nearly ten years, but perhaps it was time for it to retire.

After a bit more grumbling, Alex dutifully grabbed the black paint and squeezed several large globs across the poster board. While she worked, he started on their dinner of garlic butter steaks in his cast iron skillet, with a side of roasted sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts. He enjoyed the mindless task of preparing their meal, of slicing and dicing and seasoning. The kitchen smelled divine, and his stomach gave a painful gurgle.

He left Alex’s smaller steak on the pan since she would refuse to touch it if there was even a hint of pink in it—(“My food is _bleeding_!”)—and he instead checked his phone. He thought he’d felt it vibrate a few times while he was cooking.

There was a new text message awaiting him, along with half a dozen notifications in the dating app. Ignoring those, he instead opened the text; it was from Rose.

_I want to thank you again for all of your help this afternoon. Feels like I can’t thank you enough._

A smile curved his lips. “Don’t worry about it. I can’t bear to see anyone struggling when I can do something to help.”

_Still. I’m very grateful_.

“I’m considering it my entrance fee into a new friendship,” he typed, adding a winking emoji.

_Blimey, what on earth do I have to do to enter into this friendship then?_

“I’m sure something will come up eventually. I would make you come over here and help out with Alex’s project, but you’ve got your hands full with helping David.”

_School projects are the worst. I was supposed to have left this stuff behind once I left school. But no, the universe is getting back at me for slacking off on all of my own school projects, so now I’ve got to help my kid with his. It’s a vicious cycle no one tells you about._

His mirth grew until he was laughing aloud at his phone screen. “Seeing as I’m a school teacher, I can’t exactly complain too much since I assign projects to my students.”

_Why would you torment the poor parents like that?? Especially since you are one!_

“Mostly so I can slack off a bit with explaining stuff. I don’t feel like teaching the concept of density? Okie doke, I’ll give students a list of materials to drop into a bucket of water and have them record if it sinks or floats. Bingo. Gold star for Mr. McCrimmon.”

_LOL! You’re bonkers._

_How’s the project going?_

“I’ve made Alex paint the backdrop black before we start gluing planets to it,” he typed. He then snapped a photo of Alex’s sizzling steak and sent it to Rose before he took the steak off the heat. “We’re gonna eat dinner while it dries.”

Rose replied with the drooling face. _God, that looks divine. My specialty is frozen chicken nuggets and phoning for take away. Never quite mastered the art of cooking. It takes too much time and patience, and with three young kids, those are things I’m rather short on._

“I’ll give you some basic cooking lessons, if you’d be interested,” he offered. “I *am* a teacher, after all.”

_I might have to take you up on that, Mr. McCrimmon_ 😉

His stomach flipped over and it felt like his cheeks were about to split with how widely he was grinning.

_For now, I’ll let you have dinner. The boys and I just finished our fish n chips, so it’s project time with my 3yo wanting to “help” his big brother. I can already tell this is going to go swimmingly._

He chuckled again, and tamped down the urge to continue messaging her in favor of taking the roasted veggies out of the oven. He then cut both of their steaks into tiny, bite-sized portions and scooped the sides onto the plates as well.

“Alex, love,” he said, poking his head into the dining room. He sighed when he saw her face and hands were streaked with black paint. “How’s it going?”

“Good,” she answered. Her tongue poked out of the corner of her mouth as she moved her brush in long, broad strokes along the poster board. “Nearly done.”

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning against the door frame to supervise her finishing the painting.

“Looks good,” he said when she set her brush aside and capped the lid to the paint. “Wash your hands, and we’ll eat in the living room. A quick dinner. Then right back at it with your project.”

While she scrubbed her hands, James carried their plates to the living room and set them onto the coffee table. K9 cautiously approached and sniffed the food.

“No,” James commanded. “Down. That’s not for you.”

K9 blinked up at him with such sad eyes that James was about to give the dog his own raw steak. He resisted, and instead went to the kitchen for a dog biscuit.

Alex inhaled her food as soon as her bum hit the carpet, and James pretended not to notice when she sneaked small bits of her food to the dog.

“I’ll take over cleaning up from dinner,” he said when they were finished, standing and stretching. Sitting cross-legged on the floor was definitely not as easy as it used to be. “For tonight only. You start separating out the Styrofoam balls by size, and attribute a ball to each planet. By the time you’ve done that, I should be finished in the kitchen. Don’t paint any of them ‘til I can double check you’ve got the sizes right.”

She nodded and skipped back into the dining room, K9 hot on her heels. 

_Her little shadow_ , he thought fondly.

He kept his ear out for his daughter while he loaded the dishwasher and put away the leftover veggies. By the time he joined her, she’d separated all of the materials for the project and was playing fetch with K9 with one of the Styrofoam spheres.

“That’s not the best idea, darling,” he chastised. “What if he bites too hard and shreds it? Styrofoam isn’t good for dogs.”

“Sorry,” she said, but she dutifully took the ball away from K9 and set it on the table. It glistened with slobber.

When James sat in the chair beside his daughter, his phone buzzed in his pocket. His heart leaped into his throat and a grin spread across his face when he saw Rose’s name.

_Project update: Matthew keeps shoving the Styrofoam planets down his trousers and telling me he’s got balls in his pants. How’s your night?_

James cackled, prompting Alex to cock her head and demand, “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, nothing,” he said, trying in vain to wipe his smile off his face. “Keep working, love.”

“You have to check my balls,” Alex reminded him, nearly sending James into another giggling fit.

“Tell me which is which,” he said.

His clever girl through and through, she had not only sorted them by size, but she had also lined up different sized spheres in the order of the sun then the planets. After double-checking the project guidelines, which listed the size of each planet and the sun, James gave the all-clear. He then took a utility knife and cut each sphere into a hemisphere. Once Alex had them painted, he would then supervise her hot-gluing them to the poster board. Easy peasy.

“This would go faster if you helped,” Alex grumbled when James sat back in his chair to respond to Rose’s message.

“S’not my project,” he sang. “I put in my time.”

Alex rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him, but dutifully began painting Mercury a dull gray color. With his child occupied by her assignment, James let himself get pulled back into his conversation with Rose.

“I’m tempted to text Alex’s teacher and tell her the dog ate her project,” he typed. K9 had sneakily snatched another Styrofoam ball from the extras that Alex didn’t need, and was occupying himself with batting it around the floor as though he were a cat. James snapped a photo and sent it to Rose.

_Don’t you dare_ , she warned. _If I’m stuck here working on a school project, so are you_.

“At any rate, I’m gonna have to spike my coffee to get through tonight.”

She replied half a minute later with a photograph of her hand holding a full glass of red wine. _Way ahead of you mate. This is glass number two. I’m already a weeeeeee bit tipsy since I had to be sober for the last nine months. Though as soon as this glass is finished, I’m gonna have to go give Matthew a bath and put him down for bed. It’s gonna be a struggle not to fall asleep with him._

“Big mood. I’ll be here all night, too, unfortunately. We’re in this boat together.” James sent that message, and began composing a new one. “Here’s a thought: in the future, can we make a pact to check in with each other to make sure our loveable little gremlins haven’t forgotten any projects or assignments? So we’re not damned to this late-night school project hell ever again? Just an idea. I know we, as parents, ought to be checking the kids’ assignments log, but y’know, sometimes things get overlooked or slip our minds and I thought this buddy system might be nice?”

He barely realized all he’d typed until Rose said, _Blimey, how can you be this verbose via text, too?_ 😉

Before he could apologize, she said, _Sounds like a plan_ 👍

_Gotta go put Matthew down. Be back later, assuming I don’t fall asleep with him._

He sent back a thumbs up emoji, and rested his phone on the table.

“Who’re you talkin’ to?” Alex asked, squirting a glob of blue paint onto the piece of cardboard she was using as a palette.

“Rose. David Tyler’s mum. We’re commiserating that you lot have waited ‘til the last minute to do this project.”

“What’s _commiserating_ mean?” she asked, scrunching her nose at him.

“We’re both feeling sorry for each other, and ourselves. It’s a word to use when two or more people are annoyed by the same thing and are being annoyed together. That’s not to say I’m annoyed with _you_ , darling. Just the situation. Okay?”

She nodded, having already tuned him out, and was smearing paint across the hemisphere that would become the Earth. Setting it aside to dry before adding the green spots for the continents, she worked on making Mars red.

The next hour seemed to drag, even with chatting with Rose (who had not fallen asleep with her son, to her displeasure) and sending her photos of Alex’s progress. By the time Alex’s bedtime arrived, she still had a few hemispheres left to paint.

“I’ll start gluing your planets down,” James said, rubbing the exhaustion from his eyes. He’d gotten used to going to bed around the time she did, apart from the nights he had additional marking to do.

“But you said I had to do this myself,” she argued.

“I know, but it’s getting very late and there’s still a lot to do, so I’m going to help you.”

Alex flashed him a dimpled, toothy grin. “Thanks, Daddy. You’re so nice.”

“Keep this in mind when I’m old and wrinkly and you’ve got to pick out my nursing home,” he said, blowing her a kiss.

He stood, cracking his back, then went to their crafts closet to rummage around for the hot glue gun. He nearly gave himself a mini heart attack when at first he couldn’t find it— _please don’t tell me I’ve got to try to find hot glue at nine-thirty at night_ —but eventually he emerged victorious.

While it heated, he refilled his coffee and grabbed water for Alex. His heart twisted when he saw the slightly-glazed look in her eyes, and the way her hands had grown clumsy in her exhaustion.

“Drink up, love,” he said gently, setting the water in front of her. “Two more planets, then you can go to bed.”

“I was gonna paint their orbits as white arcs,” she yawned, rubbing her knuckles into her eyes and luckily avoiding getting paint in them. “And speckle some stars across the background.”

“I’ll do that for you,” he said. “It’s a measly little school assignment. Your health is more important, and it’s not healthy for you to force yourself to stay awake when you’re sleepy.”

She mumbled incoherently, but dutifully finished painting the final two planets in different shades of blue.

After helping her scrub paint off of her arms and face, James tucked his daughter into her bed and kissed her goodnight. It was nearly a full hour after her normal bedtime, and so she was asleep within seconds. He kissed her again, then quietly padded out of her room and into the dining room.

Picking up his phone, he texted, “Welp, Alex is down for the count. Just me, myself, and I for the rest of the night, gluing planets into space.”

He took a photograph of his messy kitchen table and attached that for Rose as well.

_Alex’s mum isn’t helping?_

James’s breath caught in his throat, but before he could reply, she sent another message.

_Oh God, that was so tactless. I’m sorry, you don’t need to answer that. I’d like to blame baby brain as well as being sleep deprived. But really. I’m sorry._

The tightness in his chest eased a fraction. “No, it’s okay. Alex’s mother isn’t in the picture. It’s been me and her for her entire life.”

_That must be hard. I’ve recently found myself in the same boat. It’s tough_.

Well that explained why she’d been alone in the craft store with three young children. But for that to have been a recent change… “Must be hard for you, too. I’m sorry.”

_It is what it is. I can’t change it, so there’s no sense in wasting time feeling sorry for myself when I’ve got three kids to care for._

There was a sharp ache in his chest. For what, he didn’t know, but he _did_ know that he was in awe of this woman. He was inspired by her devotion to her children, her drive to be as good of a mother to them as she could be, despite the hardships of single-parenthood. How lucky had he gotten to have found a friend such as her by sheer coincidence? His conversation with her this evening had been as easy and natural as breathing; he desperately hoped she was enjoying it as much as he was, because he found wanted to talk with her regularly. His stomach did a funny little swoop when he remembered they were planning to meet in-person again so their children could play together.

The vibration of his phone against his palm drew him out of his mind.

_Sorry, I didn’t mean for that to come across so aggressively or standoffishly_ 🤦♀️

James snorted. “Standoffishly? Pretty sure you just made that up 😉 Besides, it can’t be any more aggressive than you all but accusing me of being a child predator this afternoon.”

Mere seconds after he sent that message, his phone began to ring, and for an absurd moment, he foolishly hoped to see Rose’s name as the identified caller. But that was stupid—why on Earth would she call him, when they’d been carrying a conversation over text? Still, the lightness within him dimmed a little when he saw _Jack Harkness_ on the screen instead.

“Jack,” he greeted, turning his phone on speaker-mode so his hands remained free. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Can’t a guy call his best friend for no reason?”

James smirked. “I suppose.”

“And maybe I was wondering how the dating app was going.”

James’s smile broadened. “I knew you had an ulterior motive. The dating app is… fine. Been talking to a few people, but I’m not sure I’ve really _clicked_ with anyone yet. Not the way I want to.”

“So you haven’t met anyone in-person yet?”

“Nope,” James said, popping his lips around the ‘p’ for the fun of it. “I’ve been propositioned by a few people, but haven’t wanted to meet anyone face-to-face.”

“Propositioned for…?”

“Some for sex,” James admitted, grimacing as he remembered the man who’d said James’s freckles would look even better after being “spattered with his cum”. James had immediately blocked the man and hadn’t opened the dating app for the rest of the week. The handful of people he had been speaking to unmatched from him when he’d seemingly ghosted them, and so he’d had to start again from the beginning. “Some for coffee or drinks.”

“You do realize that the only way to check if you have chemistry with another person is to _actually_ meet them face-to-face, right?” Jack asked.

“I would like to enjoy texting any future partner I may have,” James countered. “I like _talking_ to people, Jack. It’s what I do best. And if I can hardly stomach a texting conversation with someone, that isn’t exactly a good omen.”

“Maybe you’ll enjoy texting them more after you’ve met them,” Jack suggested. “What’s the harm in meeting for coffee? Ianto and I are always happy to keep Alex for a few hours so you can go out. Or overnight, if the coffee date goes well and you want to bring your date home for seconds.”

James could practically hear Jack’s eyebrows waggling, and he rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about it.”

Really, though, his friend had a point. The dating app had matching him with people within a 25-mile radius of his town; surely it wouldn’t be that much of a waste of time to meet up with one of his matches to see if they were more interesting in person.

His phone buzzed, and he beamed when he saw Rose’s name.

_Oh god. Yeah, that wasn’t my best moment. But c’mon, you’ve got to admit you came across as a creep at first._

He stifled his laugh, completely unaware that Jack had begun speaking again.

“Wasn’t my most shining moment either,” he assured. “We got there in the end though, didn’t we? And I got a new friend out of it.”

Wait. Were they friends? He was well aware of his tendency to throw his whole self into relationships, be it platonic or romantic, and that many other people preferred to gradually fall into a new friendship.

Hurriedly backtracking, he added, “Or acquaintance. Whichever.”

_You went shopping with me while holding my screaming newborn. I’ll say that makes us friends_ ❤

He blew out a relieved breath. “Oh good. I rather enjoy your company, even though we just met.”

_Good thing I enjoy your company too. We’re still on for a playdate this weekend, right?_

_*playdate for the kids_

“Damn, here I was thinking you and I were gonna have some fun.”

_My idea of fun currently is not talking about kids’ shows or hearing about how someone did a really big poo in the toilet._

He broke into a fit of giggles, knowing _exactly_ how she was feeling, and it was only then that he remembered Jack.

“What on earth is so funny?” his friend demanded.

James cringed, his mirth fading. “Sorry, I was texting someone. Hang on.”

He returned his attention to his phone and typed, “Funny how the definitions of “fun” and “excitement” changes as you grow older, innit?”

“‘Kay, I’m back with you,” James said, sending the message to Rose.

“A match of yours? That laugh sounded promising.”

James snorted. “No, not a match. Did I tell you about Alex’s project on the planets? Well, it turns out it’s due tomorrow and I had forgotten to get supplies, so I went to the shops and ran into the mother of one of Alex’s classmates. Long story short, we exchanged numbers and are moaning about this bloody project together.”

Jack was silent for a beat, then drawled, “Planets are that funny, eh?”

The tips of James’s ears burned a little, but he said, “Well, we’re chatting about other things too. We’re gonna meet up this weekend so the kids can have a playdate.”

“Wow, agreeing to meet up in person after only knowing her for a few hours. You sure you’re ready for that?”

“Ha ha,” James grumbled, “very funny. This is different, and you know it. Firstly, we’ve already _met_ in person; secondly, she’s a fellow parent; and thirdly, we’re meeting up so our kids, who are already in the same _class_ , can hang out together. Rose and I are _friends_.”

“You’re the one who wants to be friends with your future spouse,” Jack said innocently.

“Enough,” James said, a hard edge creeping into his voice. “Can’t you let me have a friend? Just because you’ll shag anyone with a heartbeat…” He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth ached, then released his deeply-held breath. “I’m sorry. That was rude. You’ve got Ianto, I didn’t mean to imply—”

“Apology accepted. I’m sorry too. I just want to see you happy, James.”

“I _am_ happy,” he insisted. “Truly. I love my life and I love Alex, and against my better judgement, I love you. But… let me figure out my romantic life on my own, yeah?”

“Fine,” Jack sighed. “How's the planets project? Is Alex still up? Does she want to talk to Uncle Jack?”

“Nah, I sent her to bed. Didn’t want her falling asleep in the paints. I have a few more things to finish for her, then I’ll be off to bed, too.”

“I’ll let you get going then,” Jack said. “Good night, James.”

“Nighty night.”

James ended the call, then checked his messages. Nothing new from Rose. Nudging his phone away from the work space, James started gluing down the rest of Alex’s painted planets, triple-checking to make sure he didn’t glue them out of order. His daughter would murder him for that.

With that done, he grabbed the white paint and started tracing their orbits, cringing when they turned out wobbly and lop-sided. Then again, perhaps it was for the best; he needed his work to pass off as Alex’s, after all.

Over an hour later, with his eyes burning, James was finally finished with Alex’s project. His phone had vibrated a few times in that time, but rather than be drawn back into his conversation with Rose, he forced himself to focus on the project or risk being up past midnight and facing the school day tomorrow utterly sleep-deprived.

It was only when he’d cleaned up the mess of paint-covered newspapers did he allow himself to check his phone. But there were no new messages from Rose. His stomach sank.

_What had the notification been for then?_

He groaned silently to himself when his phone buzzed and he saw the banner across the top of the screen, previewing a new message on his dating app. Feeling nothing but apprehension, James opened up his dating app and noted he had well over a dozen new messages, including a few from new matches. Not having the energy to engage with someone completely new, he focused instead on the messages from the people he’d been chatting with over the past week.

The sinking feeling deepened when he read the messages several times but his brain was empty of a reply. How was he supposed to respond to Lynda, who was telling him about the latest reality television show she’d been watching? Or Adam, who was boasting about his most recent promotion at his job? Or William, who was moaning that his creative juices had dried up?

James pinched the bridge of his nose. Maybe he should unmatch himself from everyone and delete this damned app. Clearly something wasn’t working for him.

Then again, perhaps he was simply caught up in the enjoyment of having talked with Rose all night. What had made his conversation with her different from those of his matches? Maybe it was that he could hear her voice in all of her messages, making it easier to talk to her since he could put a face to her name. Maybe Jack was right, and he ought to meet up with some of his matches to see if they had any chemistry in-person.

Right. Time to go on a coffee date.

He reread all of the messages waiting for him, narrowing down who he wanted to have coffee with. ( _Rose_. But he would be seeing her that weekend anyway.)

Lynda seemed sweet enough, but was a little flat and shallow in her messages. Maybe she was more personable in real life? He extended a coffee invitation to her, since he was fairly certain she wouldn’t proposition him for sex after only one date.

Adam seemed selfish and immature, and James honestly didn’t know why he kept chatting with the bloke. He sent up a silent apology before unmatching himself. Adam was probably too in love with himself to really notice or care.

William was flirty and fun, and while James was a little wary that he wouldn’t be interested in the quiet life James wanted to lead, he was also aware that _he_ often came across as too flirty. He’d give him a chance, and invited William out for coffee, too, hoping the other man interpreted it as _just_ coffee.

There. Two people. That ought to make Jack happy. And himself, obviously. Of course he was excited to have coffee with them. Of course he was. Absolutely. So excited. Definitely.

His phone buzzed in his hand twice in quick succession. One message was from William, accepting his invitation, the other from Rose, a photo of David’s project. With a growing smile, he didn’t hesitate to go to his messages app and pull up his conversation with the latter.

oOoOo

Morning had come far too soon for James’s liking. His eyes felt filled with sand as he fumbled to silence his blaring alarm, his limbs too heavy with exhaustion to coordinate. With a quiet groan, he pushed himself out of the warm cocoon of blankets and shuffled to his bathroom for a shower and shave.

Alex was bright-eyed and well-rested when she joined him in the kitchen after her shower; he cursed himself for not making her stay up a little later the night before.

“My project looks beautiful,” she said, beaming when she saw it splayed on the kitchen table. She turned her grin on him. “Thank you, Daddy.”

“You’re very welcome, darling,” he said, stepping up to her to kiss the top of her head. “Though let’s not wait until the night before to do a project in the future, yeah?”

“Agreed,” she said, nodding.

After a hurried breakfast, James let K9 out onto the back porch and checked that his water dish was full before he collected all of his school supplies and Alex’s project and loaded them into his car. Morning traffic was, as always, a pain, even despite him and Alex always getting into the school well before the start of the school day.

He parked in the faculty lot, keeping to the back rows to let some of the older teachers have better spots. He slung his laptop back over his shoulder, helped Alex into her backpack, then picked up her posterboard for her. He guided her into the school, swiping his identification badge to let them in one of the back doors that was near his classroom, where they stopped by so he could drop off his laptop and jacket, before continuing on to her room. It was in a completely different wing of the school, but soon enough, James saw a petite brunette sneaking a kiss from one of James’s fellow year six teachers.

“Miss Oswald,” James said, clearing his throat. “Mr. Pink. Good morning to you both.”

Danny Pink sprang away from Clara as though burned, while the latter laughed and lifted onto her toes to kiss his cheek.

“See you later,” she said, pushing playfully at his chest.

Danny stuffed his hands deep in his pockets, ducking his head as he whirled on his heel to walk in the completely wrong direction to his own classroom. James smirked down at Clara and waggled his eyebrows.

“Hush you,” she chided. Brightly, she turned to Alex, “Good morning, Alex.”

“Good morning Miss Oswald.” Alex looked up at her father. “Can I go to the cafeteria to hang out with my friends?”

“Sure thing,” he said. “Let’s drop off your coat and bag first.”

Clara unlocked the door behind her, and led the way into the classroom. Alex followed, going to the wall of coat hangers and finding the one with her name on it. She struggled out of her coat then hung it on the upper hook while hanging her back pack on the lower one.

“Bye Daddy,” she said, already skipping to the door.

“Have a nice day,” he called after her, but she was already gone. To himself, he muttered, “ _Have a nice day too, Daddy._ Why thank you, love.”

Clara snorted. “Talkin’ to yourself already? It’s not even seven-thirty.”

He didn’t deign to reply and instead asked, “Where do you want this?” 

“Back counter,” Clara said, pointing. She scrutinized him, tilting her head to the side as she held his gaze for several seconds. “Late night? You two didn’t wait ‘til last night to start, did you?”

“Of course not,” he squawked, wincing at how high his voice had gone.

Clara hummed, clearly not believing him but not challenging his assertion. “At least it looks like you let Alex do the whole thing. That’s good. I’m betting half the projects were mostly done by an overly helpful mum or dad.”

James’s ears burned and he hoped his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. Clearing his throat, he said, “The point was for _Alex_ to know the solar system, not me. ‘Sides, what do I know about the solar system? According to a seven-year-old who shall not be named, I’m _old_ because I told her in my day there were nine planets, not eight.”

“Poor Pluto,” Clara quipped. “My day, too. You’re not old, y’know. Unless you’d consider me old?”

“Do you really want me to answer that question?” he teased.

“Oh, piss off,” Clara said, fondly pushing at his chest. She sobered and straightened, turning her attention to the door. “Sorry ‘bout that. Hi, Rose. You can put David’s project on the back counter.”

James’s heart swelled in his chest as he whirled on his heel, a grin threatening to split his face.

“Hello again,” Rose said to him. Dark, bruise-like shadows were under her eyes and her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, with soft tendrils falling into her face. She wore a baby sling, and inside, gurgling contentedly, was Jodie.

“Morning,” James said, sauntering up to her.

“Oh, I’m so pleased to see you did the hanging diorama,” Clara said, clapping. “Hardly anyone does that, despite it being one of the easiest models. Bit bulky, though.”

Indeed, James was kicking himself now when he beheld how simply David’s model had turned out. Rose held a meter stick where nine Styrofoam balls hung from white string—the sun all the way to Neptune.

“We always try for the least complicated option in my house,” Rose drawled.

“Don’t blame you one bit,” Clara sympathized. She beckoned for the model. “I’ll hang this up behind my desk so the strings don’t get tangled.”

“Thanks,” Rose said, handing it over. She then turned her attention to James. “How’d your model turn out?”

He pivoted on his heel, gesturing grandly to the countertop. Rose bypassed him to take a look. He prayed she wouldn’t oust him to Clara for having put the finishing touches on Alex’s model.

“Looks good,” she said, smirking. An impish gleam sparkled in her tired eyes. “Love the arc of the planets’ orbits.”

James’s neck flushed and he said, “Alex’s idea.” Not technically a lie.

Rose winked at him, and his stomach warmed.

“Well, I ought to get home,” Rose said. She bounced Jodie gently in the sling. “This one kept me up all night. ‘Course now she’s sleeping like the dead.”

James winced in sympathy. “Will you be able to nap at all?”

“Oh absolutely,” Rose said. “I plan on hoppin’ back into bed and not moving an inch ‘til I have to pick up the boys.”

James cocked his head. “Where are they, anyway?”

“Matthew’s at his own school, and David went to the cafeteria for breakfast,” Rose said.

“Alex went there too.” After a long and awkward silence, he blurted, “Can I walk you to your car?”

Rose’s cheeks went a little pink as a half-smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Sure.”

He gestured for her to lead the way, then he followed. At the door, he turned back to Clara and said, “See you later.”

Clara was merely wearing a secret little smile, looking for all the world like a cat that caught the canary. “Bye.”

Puzzled, James waved at his colleague then casually strolled alongside Rose down the mostly-deserted corridors. In another ten or fifteen minutes, it would be bustling with students and parents.

The silence between them was comfortable as they walked through the school, out the front doors, and into the brisk autumn morning. Rose automatically moved her arms to wrap around Jodie, as though she could physically barricade her baby against the chill air.

“Saturday or Sunday?” he asked as he gently touched Rose’s elbow to guide her across the street to her car.

“Pardon?”

“The kids’ playdate,” he clarified.

“I was thinkin’ Saturday,” Rose said, unlocking her car and opening up the back driver’s side door, “but if you had plans…” She expertly unwrapped Jodie from the sling and settled her into the car seat before softly closing the door.

“Nope, no plans. How about after lunch time?”

Rose grimaced then countered, “Can we do after nap time? Matthew tends to nap in the early afternoons. You’ve already seen what he’s like when he’s tired.”

“Three o’clock? Will that give him enough time to nap and wake up?”

“Yep. I’ll pencil you into my schedule,” she said, her tongue teasing at the corner of her mouth as she grinned. 

The warmth in his belly bloomed through his entire body, delicious chills tightening his skin. “It’s a date. Well, not a _date_. Oh, you know. Playdate.”

Rose tilted her head back and laughed. It transformed her whole face, brightening it even as her eyes and mouth crinkled at the corners. It was the loveliest sound James had ever heard. “Yes, I know what you meant. See you later.”

Rocking back on his heels, James stuffed his hands deep into his pockets, well aware of the daft smile on his face as he watched Rose climb into her car and drive away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter 💜 I'd love to hear from you if you're reading 💜


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James and Rose take their children to the park for a play date.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned into yet another behemoth, clocking in at 9600 words 😂 I hope you enjoy James and Rose's [play]date!

Rose was giddy with excitement by the time Saturday came around; she was almost more excited than David. How wonderful would it be to sit and chat with a fellow adult without having to worry too much about her kids? Hopefully David would include Matthew while he played with Alex, but if not, Matthew usually had no trouble finding other children to play with. Jodie was proving to be a mostly quiet and content baby; Rose hoped her youngest would be in a good mood while they were at the park.

For once in her life as a parent, absolutely nothing went wrong on the day of the playdate. Nobody was ill or in a foul mood, and Matthew went down for a nap that had him waking at a quarter after two. He was all sleepy smiles and kisses when she went to wake him up, asking that she cuddle him for “just a few minutes Mummy.”

How on earth was she supposed to say no to that? She crawled into her bed, where he preferred to take his weekend naps, and gathered him up close to her chest, brushing kisses all across his face.

“I love you, Mattie,” she murmured. “I love your eyes and your cheeks and your nose and your chin and your forehead…” She planted a kiss to each part of his face that she listed, drawing quiet giggles from him.

After about ten minutes, Rose started getting him up and out of bed, making sure to hype up their afternoon plans to ensure he didn’t suddenly decide he hated the park. With the cooling temperatures outside, she layered his clothing in case he got hot and sweaty running around, but then chilled again when he settled down. She herself donned an old, worn jumper that was as warm as it was soft, a pair of thick leggings, and faux-fur-lined boots. A casual ensemble that was both presentable and comfortable. Her hair, however, was a mess, so she pulled it back into her favored messy bun.

She forced Matthew and David to the toilet before they left, then she triple-checked the baby bag for nappies and wipes and extra clothes enough that Jodie could have a blow-out at least three times and have a clean outfit.

James was already at the park by the time Rose arrived with her kids. He was engrossed in his phone, those specs he’d had when he’d helped her shop for craft supplies nowhere in sight. The gentle autumn breeze tousled his hair, letting the weak afternoon sun shine off of it and highlight the red and gold hues in the rich chestnut locks.

She’d nearly forgotten how tall he was, and how slim. He clearly preferred form-fitting clothes, and why wouldn’t he, with his body type? His black jeans clung to his calves and thighs, and they showcased how his backside curved into his lower back. Even his casual black-and-white-striped hoodie fit him well, hugging his narrow hips and showcasing his deceptively broad chest.

Rose glanced around but didn’t see a child with him. She wasn’t exactly surprised; after all, she wouldn’t have expected her children to wait when there was an alluring playground in front of them.

Either having heard or sensed her approaching, he looked up from his phone and his face broke out into a joyous grin when he locked eyes with her. An answering smile tugged at her lips as he strode toward her.

“Rose! So glad you could make it.” He turned around and scanned the play area before calling out, “Alex! Alex, c’mere!”

A tiny brown-haired girl began running towards them, followed by a loping black and white dog. Matthew squealed and darted behind Rose’s legs, the sound turning into a whining scream as the dog drew closer and closer.

“K9, sit. Down,” James ordered when the dog was still ten paces away.

The dog whined pitifully, but dropped his bum to the ground, then lowered his front half until he was lying on the ground, his tail thumping hopefully behind him.

“You brought your dog,” Rose observed, reaching behind her legs to stroke Matthew’s hair.

James grimaced, mouth tense. “Sorry, I didn’t think to warn you. I always bring him with us when we go to the park. If I don’t, both he and Alex beg, and how can I say no to those faces? Speaking of. Alex, love, I’d like to introduce you to this nice woman. This is Miss Rose.”

Alex was a near spitting-image of her father, from her thick, shining hair to the freckles dotting her cheeks and nose to her slender build that bordered on scrawny. Everything except her eyes, which were a hazel blue-green, most likely a gift from her mother. When she beamed, Rose noticed those eyes crinkled the same way her father’s did, and she also saw the girl hadn’t yet grown the two teeth on either side of her front two incisors.

“Hi Miss Rose! I’m Alexandra McCrimmon,” she said, thrusting her hand out.

Rose bit back a grin as she shook the little girl’s hand. “Nice to meet you Alexandra.”

“Oh, no, everyone calls me Alex,” she explained. “But Daddy says an introduction should have your full name, then your preferred name.”

“Hmmm, not to contradict your daddy,” Rose said, smirking up at James, “but wouldn’t it create less confusion if you introduced yourself by your preferred name? That way people wouldn’t be wondering if they ought to call you Alex or Alexandra?”

Alex tilted her head to the side, her brow furrowing. She turned her attention to her father. “I think Miss Rose is right. I don’t like your advice anymore.”

He snorted and ruffled her hair. “Duly noted. Turns out daddy doesn’t always know best, eh?”

“You know best _most_ of the time,” Alex allowed.

“I’m flattered,” he said dryly.

Rose winked at James, then glanced down at her children to finish the introductions. “Well, you know David already. And this is Matthew.” 

Despite her best efforts, Matthew planted his feet and clung to her legs, refusing to be moved out in the open. Rolling her eyes fondly, Rose merely tousled his hair then gestured to the baby buggy.

“And this is Jodie.”

Alex gasped in delight and approached the pram. She leaned closer to see the sleeping baby, but James casually yet firmly grabbed Alex’s shoulder, halting her movements.

“She’s fine,” Rose told him. Addressing Alex, she said, “You’ve just got to be gentle and quiet with her, is all.”

“She’s so cute,” Alex whispered dreamily. “I’d love to have a baby sister to play with and dress up.” She then turned to Matthew. “Why are you scared of my dog?”

“M’not scared,” he insisted, but he shifted farther behind Rose’s legs.

“D’you wanna pet him?” Alex offered. “He’s really soft.”

“No!”

“Well, I do,” David said. He glanced up at James. “May I pet your dog, Mr. McCrimmon?”

“He’s _my_ dog,” Alex said in a huff, crossing her arms across her chest. She then beamed. “But yeah! C’mon!”

Rose watched as Alex grabbed David’s hand and tugged him to where the dog was prostrate on the ground. His back half began to wiggle as the two children neared, but Rose was amazed to see him remain on the ground.

“You’ve got him trained well,” Rose noted.

James hummed. “Well, with an enthusiastic child in the house, I couldn’t have an enthusiastic dog, too. If only training Alex was as easy as training K9, I’d have this parenting thing in the bag.”

“Canine?”

“Kay, the letter. Nine, the number,” James corrected, enunciating more clearly. “Alex picked the name herself.” His gaze softened as he watched his daughter. “She was so pleased with herself.”

“Clever,” Rose said. “How old is he?”

“Just turned two,” James said. “Alex had been begging me for a dog for months, and I tried to compromise with her and get a cat, but she was firm in her desire for a dog.”

His eyes zeroed in on Rose’s legs, where she felt her middle child shifting. She glanced down and saw Matthew shuffling out into the open, his gaze locked on his elder brother and the dog to whom he was giving a belly rub.

“Hello,” James crooned softly, crouching down to Matthew’s height. “D’you remember me? I’m James.”

Rose was surprised when Matthew nodded; she’d assumed he’d been too lost in his tantrum to notice James. She smoothed her fingers through his hair again, hoping the touch would soothe and comfort him. She couldn’t blame him; how terrifying must it be to see an animal that was nearly as tall as he was, and twice as heavy?

“It’s okay, love,” Rose said. “I’m right here. Mummy would never let anything hurt you. You know that, right?”

“Right,” he said distractedly, eyes trained on the dog.

“Wanna go say hi?” James asked, extending a hand. “I promise he’ll be on his best behavior. I promise he won’t harm you. ‘Sides, I’m bigger than he is, and you’re not scared of me, are you?”

Matthew tucked his smaller palm into James’s and let himself be led nearer to the dog. They’d only made it a few steps before Matthew planted his feet and began to whimper, even though he said, “I wanna see the doggy.”

James, bless him, stood patiently beside Matthew and didn’t try to coax the child any closer to the dog. He simply held Matthew’s hand and repeatedly told him, “It’s all right.”

An odd crumpling sensation took up residence in Rose’s chest as she watched James with her son.

Meanwhile, David seemed to be having the time of his life, stroking the dog and getting his face licked. Rose smiled at her eldest, glad to see him so genuinely happy. She and Jimmy had once discussed getting a pet for the boys, but that talk fizzled out as their relationship fell apart. When she became a single mother overnight, she wondered if getting a small pet, like a cat, would help the boys’ mental and emotional states. But then she found out she was pregnant, and once again, let go of the idea of a pet.

_Maybe a fish…?_

“Oh, come on Matthew,” David huffed, his fingers buried in K9’s fluffy fur. “He’s very soft. Come here.”

Matthew toddled a bit closer, but tensed up and backed up a few paces when K9 whipped his head towards the boy.

“K9, stay. Down.”

The dog whined as his tail thumped against the ground.

It took an age before Matthew got close enough to touch the dog. All the while, James kept reminding K9 to remain on the ground. The toddler let go of James’s hand and sank onto his knees beside the dog.

He giggled and turned towards Rose. “Mummy, look! Issa doggy!”

“I see that, baby boy. Well done. Is the doggy soft?”

Matthew babbled somewhat unintelligibly and continued petting the dog. James stayed by Matthew’s side, one hand casually on K9’s collar.

Rose pushed the baby buggy in front of her as she approached her kids. David and Alex were chatting about wanting to play with K9 once Matthew was done petting him.

K9’s tongue lolled out as Rose crouched beside her youngest son and gave the dog’s chest a scratch.

“Issa soft, pretty doggy,” Matthew said, grinning at his mum. “I like him.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Rose kissed his cheek.

“Mum, can I go with Alex and throw Frisbees with K9?”

Rose nodded to David, who whooped in delight. James placed a cautious hand on Matthew’s chest to back him up a step. Right in time, too. Alex leaped to her feet and ran to a park bench, where a cloth tote bag sat unattended beneath one of the benches. K9 jolted to his feet.

“You’re okay,” James soothed when Matthew flinched and whimpered. “He follows Alex like a shadow, is all. Can barely make him listen if she’s off running somewhere. She and your big brother are gonna go play Frisbee with K9. Want to go with them? They’ll be down on that football pitch.”

James pointed to the mostly-empty field of grass, which would be perfect for playing fetch.

“Yeah, c’mon Mattie,” David said. “I promise I won’t let K9 hurt you. But if you’re too scared…”

“M’not scared,” he snapped with an impressive bravado, even as his bottom lip wobbled when K9 and Alex approached.

“Well come on, then.” David then turned his grin on Alex, and said, “Bet I can beat you to the pitch!”

And he took off at a sprint. Alex shrieked and bolted after him, K9 hot on their heels. His tongue lolled happily as he matched his pace to Alex’s, never once overtaking her.

“K9 adores her,” Rose noted.

“Yeah, he does. We got very lucky with him. I know most dogs are incredibly loyal, but he takes it almost to a whole new level.”

“Mummy, I wanna play with the doggy,” Matthew whined.

“Then go play with the doggy,” Rose said, gesturing for him to follow his big brother. “Stay with David, though. And stay where Mummy can see you.”

She kissed his temple, then shooed him off towards the football pitch. He grinned and cackled as he ran in the clumsy, stumbling way of toddlers. He shouted for his brother the whole way, until he finally caught up with him and Alex.

“Right, that’s the big kids dealt with,” James said, standing. He brushed invisible dirt from his knees. “And your little one seems pacified. Time for grown-up chat?”

“Yes please. God, I feel I haven’t spoken to another adult who isn’t my mum in ages.”

Rose pushed herself to her feet, then fussed with Jodie’s blanket and her dummy, which was in danger of falling out of her mouth, before pushing the pram towards the bench James beckoned toward. She sank onto the seat and locked the wheels of the pram, then triple checked her sleeping baby was content.

“Alex got full marks for her solar system model,” James said conversationally. “Clara… er, Miss Oswald—her and David’s teacher—stopped by my classroom on our lunch break to commend me for letting Alex do the assignment herself. So, not to brag, but my art skills are comparable with a seven-year-old child’s.”

Rose laughed. “Well done, you. Gold star.” A delighted, boyish grin crossed his face, making him look several years younger. “I make art for a living, so you can imagine how frustrating it is to not be able to help as much as I would like, ‘cos it’d be obvious if I did it for him.”

“You’re an artist? How fascinating. What sort of art do you make?”

Rose’s cheeks warmed. “Oh, er, nothing groundbreaking. It’s more of a side job, really. I take photos. I’m a photographer. I do a lot of family shoots.” God, she was babbling like an idiot. “Nothing too important.

James frowned down at her. “Don’t say that. I’m sure those photos mean the world to the families who get them done. I adore the portraits I get done of me and Alex every year. Can I see some of your work?”

Her cheeks were on fire, and she hoped her discomfort wasn’t too obvious. It wasn’t that she minded him knowing she was a photographer; on the contrary, she had long gotten over her self-consciousness, since the whole point of the art she made was to share it with the clients who’d hired her. Rather, it was the sense that she was showing off that made her squirm.

She tried to tamp those feelings down—he’d asked, after all—as she scooped her phone out of a side pocket of the nappy bag. It took no time at all to find her website, then to tap on the link to take her to the gallery page of past photography sessions she’d done. Children of all ages were featured, from newborn photo shoots to graduations to weddings to family Christmas photos, and everything in between.

“Here’s a sampling of my work,” she said, handing the phone to James.

“Oh wow,” he breathed, scrolling through the photos. “Well, I know who I’m going to be contacting for our Christmas photos this year.”

Rose grimaced, her ears now burning as her embarrassment flared again. “No, I didn’t mean for your to…”

“The quality of your photos is _stunning_. And you’re much more local than the place I usually take Alex. Where’s your studio, anyway? How come I’ve never heard of you before? Why aren’t you the talk of the town?”

“Well, a couple reasons. Firstly, this is my side job. I’m available on the weekends, or if I’m booked well in advance. When I lived in London, I worked at a department store during the day, so I could only take a few appointments here and there. Secondly, I know what it’s like for low-income families not being able to afford things like family photo shoots. So I often keep my rates relatively low. Enough to make a small profit, but not enough to live on by itself. Hence the day job.

“And thirdly, I’m new to the area, so I haven’t had a chance to build up my clientele. I usually work through word-of-mouth, but that’s hard when I haven’t taken on many clients since moving here. Well. I say many. Haven’t taken on _any_. I’ve mostly focused on getting my boys settled and finding a job who was willing to hire a heavily-pregnant woman. I really lucked out in that regard though. I was hired on as a personal assistant to a solicitor, who was also just about to have a baby, so she wanted to find someone for when she came back from maternity leave. She was thrilled that I’d be going on maternity leave at the same time as her. It’s part time too, which works well with school drop-off and pick-up. And the fact that she knows the unpredictability of having kids is nice too. She let me kind of get used to working for her and the routine right up ‘til I had Jodie, so I’ll be able to hit the ground running when I go back to work.”

Dear God, would she ever stop talking? She’d teased him about his verbosity, yet here she was, prattling on and on when he’d asked her a simple question.

James didn’t seem to mind, though. Rather, he was looking at her with such a peculiar, unreadable expression on his face that Rose felt as though she were sitting naked in front of him. She squirmed around uncomfortably for a few seconds, then pretended to check on Jodie, who was still sleeping peacefully.

“How recently did you move? If you were heavily pregnant, it must not have been too long ago.”

Needing something to do with her hands, Rose carefully picked up her sleeping baby, glad that the infant slept more soundly than a rock. Jodie made a few noises, but ultimately settled with a sigh, nuzzling into Rose’s chest.

“This past summer,” she answered. She could have left it at that, but instead she continued, “I wanted to give my boys a fresh start. Their father… their father passed away in February. Our old flat was too full of memories for them, and too small, when I realized I was pregnant again.”

James’s face fell, blanching of all color. “Oh, God. I am so sorry to hear that.”

Rose shrugged. “It’s been hardest on David. He’s seven, and remembers his dad well. Matthew occasionally asks where his father is, but for the most part has already forgotten him, or at least has accepted that his dad is “gone” and not coming back. Even if he doesn’t really know what that means. And obviously Jodie never knew her father.” She brushed her lips to her baby’s brow, breathing in the warm scent of her.

“And you?” James asked gently, but not invasively. “How are you holding up?”

Rose sighed and kissed her baby again. “I’m fine. I mean, I’m upset. Of course I’m upset. But not for the reasons everyone seems to think. I’m not _devastated_ , y’know. I’m upset because I know David is hurting. And parenting is harder by myself. Which of course makes me feel guilty that I’ve made it all about me. But Jimmy… me and him weren’t exactly getting along, at the end. He was a good dad to the boys, and he was dutiful about caring for them and helping with the bills. But he wasn’t invested in our relationship anymore, and hadn’t been for a while. I always had a feeling he was playing around with other girls in the last six months or so before he died. Never had proof of that though.”

A warm hand settled on her thigh, just above her knee. James squeezed gently, his thumb caressing soothingly; the warmth of his palm leached through the fabric of her leggings, sending a chill through her. Rose couldn’t help but cover his hand, threading her fingers loosely through his, but not removing it from her thigh. His hand was soft, the skin unblemished. _Beautiful_.

“You must think I’m an idiot,” she confessed, looking down at their twined fingers rather than at the owner of said fingers.

“Never,” he said vehemently. “ _Never_.”

Rose snorted. “ _I_ think I’m an idiot. I suspected Jimmy of cheatin’ on me, yet I stayed with him. Not only that, I… we… partook in _activities_ that made Jodie. I’m such an idiot for havin’ sex with him even though I didn’t love him anymore.”

“That doesn't make you an idiot,” he argued. “Love isn’t a prerequisite for sex. Wanting sex… wanting that _connection_ isn’t stupid at all. And I’ll have words with anyone who says otherwise.”

Her body went warm all over, but it especially concentrated in her chest. She couldn’t help the wide grin that crossed her face, and she tightened her hold around his fingers because she thought she might burst if she didn’t squeeze something.

“You’ll need to have words with my mum, then,” Rose said with a wry chuckle. “When I first told all this to her, she said I was stupid and irresponsible. Funnily enough, she changed her tune when she realized she was getting another grandbaby out of it. Especially a girl. And I stopped hating myself so much when I realized I was pregnant. No matter what things had been like between me and Jimmy, I will never regret anything that gave me my children.”

James casually shifted his hand from beneath hers, but rather than pulling away, he simply flipped his hand over so they were now palm-to-palm. She immediately fit her fingers into the spaces between his. Logically, she knew all hands fit together when positioned like that, and yet, her stomach gave a funny _jolt_ that she hadn’t felt in years. 

“I know exactly what you mean,” he said, rubbing his thumb along the back of hers. “At university, I was involved in a casual, on-again, off-again relationship with a woman named River. We met at first-day orientation and hit it off right away. A week later, we tumbled into bed together. We dated for a couple months, broke up, got back together, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

“For our entire time at uni, we would hook up regularly, though we both knew we probably shouldn’t have. We cared for each other, but we weren’t in love with each other, and yet the familiarity of each other was comforting. Not to put words in your mouth, but I imagine a similar feeling kept you and Jimmy together long after you probably should have parted ways. Though of course I understand having two small children together complicates that.

“We were just about to graduate when River found out she was pregnant. We both sort of panicked—I actually _proposed_ to her on the spot.” James snorted and shook his head. “Thank God she turned me down for that. But we did decide we ought to move in together, to get ready for our baby who would be coming the following winter. I think we hoped that the baby would tie us together, even though our track record already indicated we weren’t a good match.

“Our daughter was born on Valentine’s Day, and by the first of March, River was gone. I’d gone out for a few hours to run some errands, and when I came home, Alex was crying in her crib and the house was empty. I have no idea how long Alex had been left there on her own, and it still makes my heart stop to think about everything that could have gone wrong if I hadn’t come home when I did. River left a letter sitting on top of the changing table, saying she was leaving. She ignored all of my calls and texts and emails, and eventually she changed her number. Or blocked me. She deleted all of her social media pages. For all intents and purposes, it was like she never existed. I haven’t heard from her since.”

“I am so sorry, James,” Rose said, her heart sinking for him. She had been scared enough when she’d given birth to David; she couldn’t imagine being left on her own with a newborn as a brand-new mother. But in addition to her sympathy, there was an impotent _fury_ rising up in Rose. How _dare_ River abandon her child like that. Abandon _James_ like that.

James shrugged, though the gesture wasn’t as nonchalant as he had probably intended it to be. Her anger softened and sympathy took its place, along with a deep fondness for him. He had made the best of a bad situation, had taken the bitterest lemon and made the sweetest lemonade. From what she had seen of him so far, he’d not only managed single parenthood, he excelled at it. He had thrown his entire being into caring for his child and doing right by her. And as a result, he was a wonderful father to a wonderful little girl. Her stomach fluttered again, and she tightened her abdominals to force the sensation away.

“I’ve made do,” James said, stirring her from her thoughts. “After River had been gone for several months, I accepted she wasn’t coming home. So I moved us out here. We used to live in Chiswick. My cousin and her husband had moved to this area, and I figured I could use all the help I could get.”

He snorted, the sound heartbreakingly self-deprecating. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to turn that into a pity party for myself. Or to take away from your story. I have a rubbish track record with doing that. It’s my way of trying to connect with other people and their experiences, but I fear I sometimes come across as being selfish and narcissistic.”

“You’re not coming across that way,” she promised, leaning into him. His scent surrounded her, and she shivered; how did he smell so damn _good_? “It’s nice, being able to share stuff like this with someone else. Not that I’m glad any of it has happened, to you or to me, but I like that I can talk about it with you.” Her cheeks burned, and she chewed on the inside of her lip for a few seconds before blurting out, “I feel really comfortable with you. Even though we just met a few days ago.”

He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I feel very comfortable with you, too, Rose. It’s like… it’s like I’ve known you forever. Y’know? I have to consciously remind myself to give you background details of what I’m talking about ‘cos my brain assumes you know already.”

Rose giggled and pressed her cheek deeper into his shoulder. “I know exactly what you mean.”

They were quiet for a few seconds before James said absently, “Looks like Matthew warmed up to K9.”

It was only then that Rose remembered she had brought her children with her to the park. Jolting upright, she snapped her head to the football pitch, a knot in her chest as she scanned for her sons. The tension eased when she found them. A group of children had joined them in playing fetch with K9, who was lavishing in all the attention, bounding from child to child to have them throw the Frisbee.

“I nearly forgot Alex was here,” James admitted, the tips of his ears growing red.

“Oh, thank God, so did I,” Rose laughed. “Least I didn’t forget about this one and drop her.”

She absently bounced Jodie in her arms, and peered down at her baby. The girl was awake and blinking blearily, staring intently at nothing.

“You tryna take a poo?” Rose murmured to her, caressing her fingertip down Jodie’s temple and cheek. “Gotta nice poo in there?”

Jodie let out a shudder, then began whimpering and squirming.

“Ah, just a wee?” Rose asked, a quick pinch of the front of the baby’s nappy confirming it was soaked. “Right, let’s get you changed and dry, eh? Mummy’s gonna take care of you, sweetheart.”

“Can I get you anything?” James asked when she stood from the bench.

“Nappy bag?” Rose pointed to the pram. “On the basket at the bottom.”

James saluted and dutifully retrieved the bag, placing it on the bench. Rose fumbled inside for the thin blanket, and draped it across the bench before she set Jodie atop it.

“I’m gonna do this as fast as I can, love,” Rose promised, resting a light palm on Jodie’s chest to keep her front wriggling off the bench. She doubted the infant was strong enough to do that, yet her anxiety had her keeping the baby as motionless as possible while she gathered wipes and a clean nappy. “Don’t want your little leggies and bum gettin’ cold. That’s almost as uncomfy as sittin’ in your own wee, isn’t it?”

She continued speaking nonsense at her child as she efficiently unzipped Jodie’s onesie and unstrapped the soiled nappy. Setting it to the side, Rose wiped Jodie clean and dropped the used wet wipes atop the nappy. She nearly did a double-take when James expertly folded up the nappy and wipes and walked it to the rubbish bin.

“You didn’t need to do that,” Rose said, securing a nappy around Jodie’s hips before stuffing her legs back into the onesie.

“I didn’t mind. Besides, I’ve touched my fair share of used nappies. Not in several years, mind. Unless you count my cousin’s littles. I’ve changed their nappies a time or two.”

“There’s hand sanitizer in the side pocket,” Rose said, gesturing with her elbow to the nappy bag.

When she finished zipping Jodie back into her long-sleeve, long-legged onesie, Rose accepted the hand sanitizer from him. After disinfecting her hands, she picked her baby up again. Jodie, wide awake now, was still fussy, and Rose groaned when she counted down the hours in her head; it was nearly time for another feeding.

“Is she hungry?” James asked delicately. “Er, do you bottle feed, or… or…?”

He gestured to his own flat chest, then made an awkward cupping motion that made Rose absolutely _howl_ with laughter. His cheeks and ears went adorably pink, but he grinned sheepishly.

“I breastfeed,” Rose managed to get out. “Oh my God, you’re ridiculous.”

“Sorry, I probably sounded like a prick just now,” he said with a grimace.

“A tiny little bit,” she teased, digging her elbow into his ribs. “Am I going to offend your delicate disposition if I whip my tit out to feed my baby?”

His flush spread down to his neck, and his throat bobbed for a few moments before he squeaked, “No. Nope.” He cleared his throat. “Seriously. I have no qualms about breastfeeding in public, despite the embarrassment of these last thirty seconds. Not that you need my permission or anything. I’m actually gonna stop talking now before I put my foot in my mouth.”

“Pretty sure it’s already there, mate,” Rose drawled. “Would you mind holding her for a moment?”

He nodded and extended his hands for the baby, who let out a scream when she realized she was no longer in her mother’s arms. Rose’s breasts began to feel heavy and aching at the sound of her daughter’s cries. 

She hurriedly pulled up the hem of her jumper and unclasped the front of her bra before holding her arms out again. James placed the baby into the crook of her arm, then politely looked away while Rose guided a nipple to Jodie’s lips. It took a few tries before Jodie latched correctly and began to nurse with enthusiasm, letting out grunts and snorts as she tried to coordinate her breathing with her suckling.

“She’s settled,” Rose said. “Her head’s coverin’ up the fun bits.” Most of her stomach was still on display, though, as she held her jumper away from Jodie’s face.

James flicked his eyes towards Rose, then down to Jodie, whose jaw moved rhythmically as she nursed. His expression went soft and reverent as he watched her.

“Beautiful.” He raised his gaze again. “I’m sorry. I really didn’t mean to sound like I’m uncomfortable with breastfeeding.”

“I’ve heard worse,” Rose assured. “Even Jimmy would sometimes get uncomfortable if I had to feed one of the boys in public. At first I was embarrassed too, but then I quickly got tired of trying to find a secluded place, since I refuse to feed my baby in a bathroom. And honestly, dealing with dirty looks was far easier than dealing with a hangry baby.”

James snorted. “I’m surprised any father would object to public breastfeeding. Surely they would want their baby to be fed as soon as they’re hungry. River wasn’t around for long, but I never minded if she nursed Alex in public.”

Rose shrugged, then traced her fingertip across the planes of Jodie’s face. “That’s the difference. You see breasts as a source of nourishment for an infant. Other men see breasts as sexual objects not to be displayed for any reason in public.”

“That’s utterly ridiculous,” James argued.

“Oh yeah?” Rose asked, catching sight of an uncomfortable-looking man approaching them. “Watch and see.”

He furrowed his brow at Rose, who inclined her head towards the stranger. The man was maybe in his forties, with a receding hairline, a ruddy complexion, and an arrogant glint in his eye that Rose was all too familiar with. James tensed beside her, but she rested a hand on his thigh.

“You know, there’s a loo right over there,” the man said, pointing towards a small, grimy building that looked like it got cleaned twice a year.

“Great, thanks,” Rose said brightly, plastering a huge smile onto her face. “I don’t have to wee yet, but I’ll be sure to try before I leave.”

The man blinked, taken aback. His eyes flicked down to Jodie, then he lifted them skyward, tilting his head back for good measure. “I _mean_ … you ought to, to… take your _business_ in there. This is a _family_ park.”

“Riiiiight,” Rose said, drawing out the syllable, her patience all but gone already. “And I’m feedin’ a member of my _family_.”

“That sort of thing shouldn’t be allowed in a public space,” the man muttered, wrinkling his nose. “Dis _gust_ ing.”

“Have you ever eaten your dinner in the toilets?” 

The man blinked. “What?”

“Have you ever eaten your dinner in the toilets?” Rose repeated, speaking far slower than she needed to.

The man’s face turned almost a puce-purple color. “Of course not…” 

“Then why would you make my baby eat her dinner in the toilets?” Rose asked. “And before you continue, have you ever tried to eat with a bloody blanket covering your head? It’s a nightmare, I’ll tell you. So no, I will not feed my baby in a public toilet. Nor will I cover her with a blanket. Good day to you, mate. Kindly—or unkindly, I don’t care—piss off and let my daughter eat her bloody dinner.”

The man stammered unintelligibly for a few seconds, then he glared at James. “An’ you’re all right with this?”

“With the way you’re treating her? No, I’m not. You’re being rather rude…”

“With your _wife_ havin’ her _tits out_ in public?” the man seethed.

“Firstly, she’s not my wife, but what an incredible honor it would be to be married to a woman like her.” Rose nearly choked on thin air at the words, but before she could think too much about it, James continued. “Secondly, her breasts are not out in the open. One of them is being used to feed her baby, and the other is discreetly covered up in her jumper. And thirdly, to reiterate her point, the point you seem to be missing, she is _feeding her child_ , which is the entire evolutionary purpose of female breasts. It seems to me that you’re the one with the problem here, and you need to walk away now before I escort you away.”

Rose flashed a simpering little smile at the man before he turned on his heel and stalked away. The expression dropped as soon as she lost sight of the man, and a scowl took its place.

“Wanker,” she grumbled.

“Wanker,” James agreed. He tentatively rested a palm on her knee. “Are you all right? I’m sorry.”

Rose shrugged. “It’s annoyin’ is all. He’s not the first, and he won’t be the last.”

“I’m sorry. Truly. I’m sorry you had to deal with the likes of him, and that this is a sadly regular occurrence that breastfeeding mothers have to put up with and defend themselves against. And I’m sorry that I was incredibly awkward in my phrasing of asking whether or not you breastfeed.”

“Trust me, you came off as endearing. He came off as a twatwaffle.”

“Oooh, twatwaffle. That’s a good one. I’ll have to hang on to that one.”

“Sorry, it’s trademarked,” Rose said, sticking her tongue out at him even as a grin stretched across her face.

His answering smile was radiant, and it was accompanied by a giggle that seemed to emanate from deep in his chest until it had worked itself into the back of his throat. It was a beautiful, joyous sound, and Rose was eager to hear it again.

Jodie unlatched from her breast with a wet-sounding hiccup, then a cough, before she began to wail. The cries were interrupted by her rather-adorable hiccups, melting Rose’s heart as she brought Jodie up to her shoulder. The hem of her jumper fell to her waist as Rose rubbed and patted her daughter’s back, trying to coax any stubborn burps out of her belly.

All the while, Jodie continued hiccupping and fussing, clearly not done with her meal yet, but unhappy with having hiccups. It took a few minutes before her hiccups subsided and Rose got her latched again, this time to her other breast.

“I didn’t realize you ought to, er, change sides when nursing,” James said, staring as Jodie sighed and nursed lazily from the new breast.

“You don’t have to. I just prefer to,” Rose said. “It makes milk production a bit more even. And it decreases the discomfort. When I first had David, I didn’t swap boobs and got one hell of an infection from only one of them getting all the action. My nipple was so infected I swear to God it nearly fell off.”

A look of abject horror leached the color from James’s cheek. “Oh, God. That sounds… oh, _God_.”

Rose laughed. “Yeah, that was _not_ fun. Jimmy nearly fainted when he saw it. It was disgusting. Not to mention incredibly painful.”

James shuddered, and she couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Is it weird…? Well, it _is_ weird, but I’ll say it anyway… I used to be so _jealous_ of mothers who breastfed their babies, back when Alex was a baby. I was a new single dad, feeling like I was utterly failing in every aspect as a parent, and then to also know that I couldn’t partake in that fundamental bonding experience a mother can have with her child, to feed them… that was the straw that broke my back. I called my cousin blubbering one night because I couldn’t bond with my baby the way mothers could. She called me an idiot—well deserved, I assure you—and told me, and I quote, “having a tit in a baby’s mouth isn’t what forms the parental bond, you dumbo”.”

Rose snorted, and had to agree with his cousin’s assessment. She glanced down at her daughter, who seemingly had her entire face planted into Rose’s breast while her arm was splayed across her chest. If they were at home, Rose would have whipped off her entire jumper and bra to let Jodie nuzzle against whatever patch of skin she wanted, even long after she’d finished nursing.

“Skin-to-skin contact is important in forming a bond,” Rose hedged, “but it’s not the only way. And breastfeeding isn’t the only way to do it.”

“I gathered,” James said dryly. He cleared his throat, the tips of his ears going red. “I started taking my shirt off whenever I fed Alex. Trying to mimic the skin-to-skin contact she’d get from being breastfed. You know, society is really _rubbish_ about allowing fathers to show affection to their children, especially to their daughters.” He grimaced.

“Jimmy would do the same,” Rose said quietly, rubbing her hand up and down his thigh in solidarity. “It’s completely natural, you know.”

“I know. It was… I felt like I needed to keep it a secret, stupid as that sounds. Because all I wanted was for my baby to bond with me, and vice versa. I was desperate for that connection after River walked out on us. And do you know how soothing it is to be skin-to-skin with a baby?”

Though she knew he meant it rhetorically, Rose hummed and nodded. She dug her elbow into his side and teased, “S’why I keep poppin’ out babies.” James barked out a laugh that, miraculously, didn’t startle Jodie. “But seriously. I understand what you’re saying. It’s the best feeling in the world to be the sole focus of a little tiny baby. Because you _are_ the world to that baby. It’s my favorite part of being a mum.”

“It’s what I love best about being a dad,” he whispered, sharing a small smile with Rose.

His soft, reverent words twisted something warm in Rose’s chest, and she didn’t quite recognize what it was at first; it was the same feeling she always had whenever Jimmy was being particularly good with the boys. Like when he picked them up their favorite sweets “just because” after work; when he would loudly proclaim to the kids’ excitement that it was going to be “boys’ day out, no mums allowed”; when he would call off work so he could stay home to help her with a sick child, claiming that snuggles with Mum and Dad were the best medicine a kid could have. There had been nothing Rose had loved more than knowing how much Jimmy loved their kids.

Now, with James, listening to him talk about how much he adored his child, the same feeling swelled through Rose. There was an intrinsic beauty to someone who carried such a pure love within them.

She had known James was rather pretty; he was outwardly attractive and very much her type. But until this moment, she hadn’t realized he was more than attractive. He was _beautiful_ , and she was sure that the beauty she saw in him came from the heart he had shared with her over the course of the past hour and a half. It lit him up from the inside out until he seemed to be glowing.

Her heart began to race. It was impossible… this feeling was _impossible_. She had known this man for all of four days, and yet she had had some of the deepest, most meaningful conversations with him. She should have been terrified; she should have looked away from him and called out to her children and told them they were going home. She should have gotten some distance from James McCrimmon and his beautiful soul, because she was not supposed to be having these feelings. Her heart wasn’t supposed to be racing; her blood wasn’t supposed to be heating; her stomach wasn’t supposed to be full of butterflies.

And she definitely should not be looking at his mouth. The mouth that was _right there_ , half a foot away.

“The world needs more men like you,” she blurted out, desperate for _anything_ to force herself to not look at his full bottom lip.

James sucked in a sharp breath, blinking dazedly in a way that heated Rose’s blood. Where in his thoughts had he gotten lost? His eyes were a shade darker than they’d been a few moments ago, though it had to simply be a trick of the light. Yes, that was it. The sun had disappeared behind a layer of clouds. That was all.

Rose hadn’t realized they’d each been unconsciously leaning closer to each other until he straightened his spine, putting distance between the two of them. She mirrored his position, arching her back to loosen the muscles that had tightened as she’d sat there nursing her child.

“Huh?” he asked stupidly.

It took her a couple seconds to recall what she’d last said. When she remembered, she clarified, “You… you’re very sweet and loving. The world needs more men like you to dismantle the patriarchy arsehole by arsehole.”

James tipped his head back and laughed, a beautiful sound that coiled low in her stomach. “I will take that as a compliment, and will have that become my life’s purpose.”

The sound of his laugh sparked through her veins, warming her blood until she’d forgotten the cooling air against her exposed stomach. Jodie had finished nursing by now but remained latched, suckling more for comfort than actual feeding. Rose stroked her finger across her baby’s chubby cheek, then coaxed her free of her nipple.

Jodie fussed at the disturbance, but settled when Rose brought her up to her shoulder for more burps. The baby seemed content to curl up there and fall back to sleep, but Rose wanted to refasten her bra and readjust her jumper.

“Need me to hold her for a bit?” James offered.

“Please,” Rose said, handing him the baby.

Again, Jodie squawked her displeasure, but ultimately settled into the crook of James’s arm. She looked so small there, dwarfed by James’s much larger body; yet he held her so delicately, as though she were the most precious, most fragile thing in the world.

Rose’s heart ached, and she hurriedly looked away from the sight they made to discreetly stuff her breasts into her bra and hook it closed. She then smoothed her jumper over her stomach.

“Want to keep holdin’ her?” Rose offered, seeing how comfortable the baby looked.

“Can I?” James asked, eyes bright.

Rose nodded, and she slouched back into the park bench. She scanned the football pitch and saw the crowd of children around K9 had mostly dispersed. David and Alex were sitting in the grass together, and Rose nearly panicked when she couldn’t find Matthew. She then groaned when she saw her toddler standing at a tree, seemingly relieving himself.

“Oh, God,” she muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose.

James followed her gaze and snorted. “Alex once got it into her head that she wanted to be able to wee like a boy because it sounded a lot easier than trying to sit on a toilet. It took months to train her out of it. You can imagine how messy it got whenever she tried to wee standing up. How long has he been toilet trained anyway?”

“I started trying with him right after his birthday in March. He wasn’t all that interested, but he’s always been pretty good at following instructions, so he would at least _try_ to use the toilet, even if he didn’t always go. When we moved to our new house, I hyped up the excitement that he and David had their own bathroom, rather than share one with me. Something seemed to click. I dunno. I lucked out with him that he never gave me too much trouble to toilet train. Obviously he still has accidents every now and then.” She then gestured to her toddler. “And clearly thinks it’s fine to wee against a tree.”

“Alex was four by the time she was toilet trained. Then she regressed a bit when she went through her phase of trying to stand to have a wee.”

Rose sighed and rubbed her temples. “Guess I ought to go be a good mum. Can you keep Jodie while I check on him?”

An impish gleam twinkled in James’s eyes as he drawled, “Want to take my phone, keys, and wallet?”

Rose laughed and smacked his shoulder lightly. “Oh, shut up. ‘Sides, Alex is just down there, I’m pretty sure I could hold her ransom in exchange.”

He giggled from low in his throat, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the sound. “She’s safe with me, don’t worry.”

And Rose found that she wasn’t worried at all. Jodie was perfectly at ease in James’s arms, and Rose had no qualms about leaving her child with him. _How strange_. Rather than analyze that too closely, she turned away from James and instead strode toward her toddler.

Thankfully nobody was paying attention to Matthew, so Rose didn’t have the embarrassment of apologizing for her child’s behavior. 

“Mattie, love,” Rose said, crouching down beside him. He’d finished, and was fumbling to stuff himself back into his pants. “We don’t wee in public like this. We wee in a toilet. You need to come find Mummy when you have to go potty, and I will take you to a toilet.”

“It was an’merg’ncy,” he insisted. “I had t’go so bad, it was ‘bouta come out in my _pants_.”

Rose looked down at his trousers, but they were dry. “Did you forget to listen to your body when it told you it needed to wee?”

Matthew dropped his gaze to his feet. “M’sorry Mummy.”

“I know.” She opened her arms and drew him in for a hug and a kiss. “I should have checked in with you to remind you to listen to your body. Do you promise to pay attention to your body so emergencies don’t happen again?”

He nodded and rested his head on her shoulder. She frowned. He shouldn't be sleepy already.

“You okay?” she asked, nuzzling her lips to his forehead. He didn’t feel warm.

“My legs are tired from runnin’,” he said. He wrapped his arms around her neck. “Will you hold me?”

“Sure thing,” she said, hoisting him up onto a hip as she stood. “It’s exhausting, running around with a doggy all afternoon, isn’t it? Did you have fun with K9?”

“Yeah. I like the doggy. Can we keep him?”

“He’s not ours,” Rose said. “He belongs to Mr. James and Alex.”

“Oh. Can we get a doggy?”

“Maybe when your sister is older,” Rose said. “She’s too little right now.”

“Hi, Mum!”

Rose turned and saw David approaching with Alex and K9. _Guess playdate is over_. She found herself deflating; it had been so nice being with James, chatting so freely. She’d never been able to talk to anyone else the way she had with him. She’d told her mother about her feelings towards Jimmy and his death—or her _lack_ of feelings—but she hadn’t had friends she could talk to about it, because many of her friends had been Jimmy’s friends too. She hadn’t wanted to speak ill of the dead when her friends were grieving, and so Rose had mostly withdrawn, finding herself alone when nobody cared to break through her solitude. It made the decision to relocate herself and her children to a new town easy.

“Did you have a nice afternoon?” Rose asked, ruffling David’s hair.

“Yeah! Can we do it again soon?”

Rose smiled. “If you’d like. And if Alex’s dad agrees.”

David let out a delighted whoop, a sound echoed by Alex. Together, the two kids raced ahead to where James sat on the bench with Jodie, presumably to ask if they could have another playdate.

Rose followed at a more sedate pace, her back tightening up from carrying Matthew. Her toddler nuzzled his cheek into her shoulder and fisted his small fingers into the front of her jumper. She prayed he wasn’t about to fall asleep.

The kids were bouncing excitedly by the time she arrived, and David blurted, “Mr. James said me and Alex can hang out together again!”

Rose beamed down at James. “Brilliant. You and I can coordinate a date and time.”

“Tomorrow?” Alex asked, turning bright eyes on her father.

James grimaced apologetically. “Not tomorrow, darling. I’m meeting up with a friend for coffee, and you get to spend some time with Uncle Jack and Uncle Ianto.”

“Oh right. Hmmm. Monday?”

James laughed and tweaked her hair. “Let me and Miss Rose discuss, and we’ll let you know.”

Alex huffed out a sigh, then she let out a groan and draped herself dramatically across her father’s thighs. James casually shifted his grip on Jodie to keep her away from Alex’s flailing limbs. He handled the baby effortlessly, as though he was used to juggling an infant and child at the same time.

“I’m starving,” the girl moaned.

“You are? You don’t look like it.” James pinched her waist, making her squirm and shriek. “Nope, definitely not skin and bone from starvation.”

“Daddy,” she squealed, wriggling away from his tickling fingers. “Nonono stop!”

He grinned at her and patted her back. “What would you like for dinner?”

“Can we go for pizza?” she asked, pouting out her bottom lip.

Rose could practically see him melting in front of his child, even as he drew in a deep breath, seemingly to say no.

“Pleeeeease?” Alex begged, bouncing in her toes. “Please please please? And can Miss Rose and David and Matthew come with us?”

“They probably already have dinner plans,” James stammered, flashing a pleading glance at Rose.

She would have loved to have bailed him out, but honestly pizza sounded divine. Much better than foraging through her cabinets for something to feed her boys. Rose shrugged. “We’ve got nowhere to be.”

David gasped, eyes bright. “Can we go for pizza with Alex and her dad?”

David turned his own pout on James as Matthew whined, “I wan’ pizza! Mummy, I wan’ pizza!”

Rose couldn’t stop her laugh this time.

“They’re ganging up on me,” James whined. “That- that- that’s not fair!”

Sobering slightly, she reached over and touched his shoulder. “Don’t feel pressured to say yes. My boys will deal.”

“And break Alex’s heart by depriving her of pizza with her new best friend? What kind of monster do you think I am?”

Alex, recognizing what her father was saying, whooped out a victory cry and began doing a little dance. “Yes! Pizza pizza pizza!” She flung herself into David and spun him around a circle that nearly sent them both sprawling. “Pizza!”

James laughed at his daughter’s antics, then stood from the bench with Jodie cradled in his arms. “I think we just won parent of the year awards with that. Want me to put her in her pram?”

Rose nodded and adjusted her grip on Matthew as her arms began to grow sore. “Which pizza place?”

“There’s a really good one on Jericho Street, not too far from the school. Do you know it?” James bent low over the pram to place Jodie inside. The girl scrunched her face, but James simply brushed his fingers across her forehead and down her cheek, murmuring, “You’re okay, sweetheart. Keep sleeping.”

Rose’s chest crumpled at the tenderness he showed to her child, as he fastened the buckles and straps around Jodie’s small body. He tucked a blanket around her then stood, face expectant.

She realized he’d asked a question and she swallowed the thickness in her throat to answer, “Yes, that’s our favorite too. We’ll meet you there?”

He beamed. “Brilliant! I should swing by a drop K9 off at home, but it’s not too far from our house. Feel free to grab a table if we’re not there by the time you get there.”

“Sounds good.”

James stuffed his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back and forth from his toes to his heels, looking like he wanted to keep talking. After a few awkward seconds, he cleared his throat and said, “C’mon Alex. K9, come.”

“Bye David,” Alex said, skipping up to her father. “See you at the pizza shop!”

Rose watched them go, admiring the sight of James’s long, limber body cresting the small hill to the car park. Shaking herself out of her head, she pecked a kiss to Matthew’s temple and said, “I need to set you down so I can push the pram. Can you be a big boy and walk?”

“Mhm.”

“I’m starving,” David said.

“Good thing we’re going for pizza,” Rose noted. She inclined her head and unlocked the wheels of the pram, guiding her children in the direction of her car, already far more eager than she probably should be to have dinner with James and Alex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed the chapter 💜 I'd love to hear from you if you're reading 💜


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